Try, Try, Try Again
by O'NeillRoxMyWorld
Summary: Chapter 8 Now Uploaded When Jack finds himself caught in another time loop... FINISHED! Note: Rating has been changed to PG because of certain references in this chapter.
1. The start of something innoying

Note: a line of **** indicates the start of a new loop  
  
Ok I am not an interstellar travel expert or any such thing, so the technical stuff in this story is probably wrong, but please bear with me and just skip over the many mistakes; I am only going on my knowledge from the real episode this is taken from, "Window of Opportunity" (in my opinion the best episode of Stargate ever made!).  
  
Oh and for those who don't know what Twinkies are, they are a sweet cake with cream in the middle, kind of like Jam Rollettes for all those fellow Aussies.  
  
SGC CHEYENNE MOUNTAIN COMPLEX 0450  
  
Colonel Jack O'Neill entered the lab, a yawn escaping from his mouth as he spotted one of his team members, Major Samantha Carter studying something through a high-powered microscope. He walked casually over to where Sam was studying.  
  
"So Carter? What's so important that you pulled me from my lovely and peaceful slumber?" he asked contemptuously. Sam looked up apologetically, a smile tugging at the corner of her mouth,  
  
"Sorry sir but this is about to mission tomorrow to P6Z 435." She explained. Jack shook his head; with Sam, work always came before relaxation. He made a note to himself to take her fishing one-day and get her away from the conformity of the SGC.  
  
"What about it?" he asked trying to sound enthusiastic, but judging by the expression on her face he wasn't very convincing.  
  
"Well sir, this is a sample the probe brought back from the planet, its soil particles found at the base of the Stargate, it has a very high level of sulfuric chloride present, high enough levels to burn through most materials." She informed her Commanding Officer. They had been assigned together at the very start of the Stargate program, many years before and from that time had become very close, closer than was allowed in the Air Force but they remained within the guidelines of the military, they had to. There was a pause of silence before he answered,  
  
"So what? We have to wear lead shoes?" he asked jokingly. Sam smiled at his supposed joke and shook her head,  
  
"No sir but we will need to wear the DECS tomorrow." Sam suggested with a hint of happiness that she couldn't hide. Jack sighed, rolling his eyes slightly, the Dangerous Environmental Conditions Suits were one of Sam's proudest creations, and she had worked tirelessly for nearly 2 months before they were completed to her satisfaction. They were supposed to protect the wearer from an array of different hazardous situations, perfect for planets that had atmospheres composed of chemicals different to Earth's, according to her.  
  
"It also means sir that we will need to make adjustments to the equipment we take on the mission." She suggested. He nodded he started to leave the room but not before commenting,  
  
"Carter?" Jack posed. Sam turned to face him,  
  
"Yes sir?" she responded.  
  
"Good work." He replied, leaving the room quietly. Sam smiled to herself and went back to work on the sample under the microscope.  
  
SGC CHEYENNE MOUNTAIN COMPLEX GATE ROOM 0945  
  
"Are the DECS completely safe?" Sam asked the technicians, as the rest of the team, pulled on the grey/silver suits. According to the security guards, she had been there since 0200 that morning checking final last minute preparations to the suits. Now she was running around organising the whole team, making sure that everything was perfect for the mission. As Sam ran by Jack he grabbed her arm through the DECS they were wearing, stopping her in her tracks.  
  
"Carter, who's the commanding officer of SG1?" he asked her quietly. Sam wiped her forehead with the back of her hand,  
  
"You are sir." She responded breathlessly.  
  
"And who should be organising everything for the mission?" he asked. Sam sighed,  
  
"You should be sir." She answered dejectedly, realising why he had stopped her. Jack let go of her arm,  
  
"You've been here since 0200, relax Carter. that's an order," Jack lowered his voice in a calming manner, understandingly, with a slight grin covering his face. She nodded in agreement,  
  
"Thank you sir." Sam replied gratefully, she could always count on the Colonel to stop her when she was pushing herself too hard unnecessarily. She took a couple of deep breaths and calmed the adrenalin rushing through her body. Jack looked up and pulled his cap down over his forehead, yet to put on the head attachment to the DECS,  
  
"We've got everything? Good let's go, happy campers." He ordered cheerfully as a burst of blue shot out from the Stargate. Sam and Daniel picked up a crate of equipment and disappeared through the Stargate. Teal'c looked at Jack, frowning, also picking up a box of supplies for the journey,  
  
"Yeah I feel it too Teal'c, something bad is going to happen." Jack shivered in his suit as the two men walked slowly towards the Stargate and plunged through the wall of blue. In a matter of seconds they were flung out of the Stargate and crashed to the ground, pain shooting through their bodies, the supplies they were carrying hitting the wall and crashing to the floor with a loud thump. Jack shook his head and checked his body for serious injury, but as he stood up he noticed that they were back in the SGC, he gazed around the gate room in confusion.  
  
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COLONEL O'NEILL'S QUARTERS 0421  
  
Jack heard at knock on the door of his quarters, he sat up in bed and looked at the door slightly taken aback. He checked the time on the clock on his bedside table, seeing it was 1158; he looked around his room quickly, not knowing how he ended up in his quarters after being thrown from the Stargate. Jack shrugged his shoulders and dismissed the memory as a dream. The knock came again, but louder,  
  
"Fine! I'm coming, I'm coming." He mumbled, shuffling to the door opening without a second thought. Sam was slightly taken aback by her CO's attire; he was only wearing a singlet and boxer shorts. Jack didn't seem to notice her discomfort,  
  
"What's up Carter?" he asked sleepily, rubbing the sleep from his eyes. Sam snapped out of her daze and answered,  
  
"Sorry to wake you sir but I need you to come down the lab, there is something unusual about one the samples from the planet and I thought you should see it immediately." She explained, quickly, trying to avoid eye contact with him. Jack instantly looked up at Sam, with a look of disbelief,  
  
"What did you say?" he asked as if to check his hearing. Sam gave him a confused look,  
  
"I asked if you could come down to the lab because I found something strange about one of the samples from P6Z 435." She repeated.  
  
"Ok, I'll be there in five minutes." he replied slowly, still in a slight daze. A scary thought entered his mind, his memory taking him back to a time when he knew what people what was going to happen before it did. He shook it off, not believing it could happen again. Sam nodded slowly,  
  
"Yes sir." She answered and walked away hurriedly. He watched after her, confused about her reaction but then looked down at what he was wearing and got the clue. Jack walked back inside and mumbled to himself,  
  
"Good one Colonel."  
  
Teal'c opened his eyes and found himself in his room at the SGC surrounded by candles. He jumped quickly from his position on the floor and look around the room, slightly confused. He sat back down and positioned himself once again on the floor, believing what he was remembering was a vision, falling back out of the Stargate in the Gate Room, he had often experienced instances in his Kelnoreem where he felt that what was happening was really occurring. A knock came at his door and his eyes snapped open, he called for the person to come in and Daniel entered his room with a large yellow file in his hand,  
  
"Sorry Teal'c but I need your help on symbols that were found on P6Z 435?" He pointed out of the room indicating to his office down the hall, the pen in his hand twisting nervously. Teal'c tilted his head slightly, he remembered that Daniel had come and saw him before about the same topic.  
  
"Daniel Jackson, have you not already asked for my help on this topic previously?" he asked suspiciously. Daniel shook his head,  
  
"No, I just got these from the probe information databank." Daniel looked at Teal'c puzzled. Teal'c stood up hurriedly and pushed his way past Daniel, almost pushing him to the floor without a single word of explanation, leaving him alone in Teal'c's room.  
  
SGC CHEYENNE MOUNTAIN COMPLEX 0450  
  
Jack entered the lab now wearing the usual khaki's and boots. Hearing the Colonel entering, she glanced at his clothes quickly and was relieved to see he was dressed appropriately. He clapped his hands together,  
  
"So? What's so unusual that you had to wake me up for hmm?" he asked with a hint of annoyance. He looked Sam's way and she immediately looked down at the floor, he could just see the hint of red on her cheeks.  
  
"Well sir, this is a sample the probe brought back from the planet, its soil particles found at the base of the Stargate, it has a very high level of sulfuric chl-" But Sam was cut off by Jack holding up his hand, indicating to her to stop. He shook his hand slightly to convey his growing frustration,  
  
"Chloride, high enough levels to put holes through "most materials" meaning that we have to wear the DECS tomorrow." he finished her sentence for her. She looked at him suspiciously,  
  
"Yes. how did you know that sir?" Sam asked sceptically. Instead of answering her, he looked at his watch and counted down the seconds on his hand,  
  
"Mornin' General." Jack mumbled, holding his breath hoping his he wrong, that all the things were simply random coincidences. As he finished his sentence, the General entered the lab. Jack let out the breath he was holding and covered his face with his hands in frustration,  
  
"Oh this cannot be happening again!" He exclaimed angrily. He remembered the last time he knew everything that was going to happen before it did, the day repeated itself over and over again and it wasn't exactly his idea of fun. Sam stepped forward,  
  
"Sir? What cannot be happening again?" she asked concerned, seeing his frustration. Jack sighed wearily, rolling his eyes.  
  
"You remember P4X 639? That guy, Malik or something was playing with that machine and we were stuck in that time loop thingy?" Jack asked waving his hands to communicate his annoyance. Sam nodded, but then her shoulders dropped,  
  
"You're not serious sir?" she asked unbelievably. He nodded his head,  
  
"Well how else would I know that you were going to tell me all that stuff?" Jack asked her with a more serious tone. General Hammond interjected,  
  
"What are you talking about Colonel?" he asked, slightly confused by his behaviour. Teal'c burst into the room at that moment,  
  
"O'Neill I wish to speak with you, it is a matter of importance." He stated rather quickly and fiercely, but he knew what Teal'c wanted to discuss, he could see it on his face.  
  
"You too huh?" Jack simply asked. Teal'c looked at him confused. He continued,  
  
"Yeah I'm the same, it looks like we are stuck in that time loop thing again Teal'c." Jack responded exhaustedly. A frown immediately covered Teal'c's face; the memory of being hit in the head with that door every time the loop started began to haunt his thoughts.  
  
"Will some one please tell me what is going on!" Hammond demanded, raising his voice considerably.  
  
"I'll like to know that too, Teal'c just ran out on me!" Daniel asked breathlessly, wheezing from his asthma, following Teal'c into the lab, the whole of SG1 was now in attendance. Jack dropped his hands,  
  
"How about we invite the whole base to hear our little saga?" he exclaimed, clearly irritated. Sam raised her hands to calm the people that joined her in the room.  
  
"What Colonel O'Neill is trying to day is that we seem to be stuck in another time loop sir."  
  
"Since when?" Hammond enquired. Jack and Teal'c remained silent, trying to remember what had happened.  
  
"Well I came in and Carter told me about the acid in the soil. The next day we went through the Stargate to P6Z 435 but Teal'c and I got thrown back out of the Stargate into the gate room and then all of a sudden I was back in my quarters, my sleep being interrupted by the Major." He finished on a slightly happier tone, thinking of how nice it would be to still be in Dreamland at that moment instead of living this nightmare. Hammond looked at Teal'c for his account of the story,  
  
"Colonel O'Neill is telling the truth, I too found myself back in my room after being thrown out of the Stargate." He replied. Daniel sighed,  
  
"What about Sam and I?" He asked. O'Neill and Teal'c shook their heads, having no definite answer, Teal'c replied to Daniel's question,  
  
"Major Carter and Daniel Jackson went through the Stargate before us, we are unaware of what become of them." He replied.  
  
P6Z 435 0952  
  
Daniel was at the DHD dialling the co ordinates back to Earth, they had just come through the Stargate to the planet but found Teal'c and Colonel O'Neill were not with them. As Daniel placed his hand in the centre the Stargate lit up but then unexpectedly de-activated. Daniel looked up at the Stargate confused,  
  
"Ah Sam, there's something wrong here." He called over his shoulder to where she was setting up camp not far behind him, not taking his eyes off the Stargate. Hearing his call, she jogged over to where he was standing beside the DHD.  
  
"What's wrong?" she asked. Daniel again dialled the co-ordinates but again the Stargate failed to open, indicating the problem to her, Sam looked puzzled but then dismissed it,  
  
"SG 9 must be coming home from their survey on PO7 818, we'll try in a little while." She assured Daniel. He shrugged his shoulders and left the gate to help set up camp. Sam looked at her watch,  
  
"They shouldn't take too long, we can try again in an hour or so." She commented to herself, unpacking the supplies they had brought with them through the Stargate for the long day ahead.  
  
SGC BRIEFING ROOM NEXT DAY 0900  
  
"According to report of the previous incident by Colonel O'Neill the last time this occurred, on P4X 639, an alien archaeologist, Malikai," She looked at Jack, indicating the correct pronunciation of the archaeologists' name. He smiled as a silent thank you and Sam continued,  
  
"He was trying to activate a time machine in order to go back to see his wife. To finish his research he made the machine loop time, providing seemingly an endless amount of time to complete his objective." Sam began her briefing. Teal'c, Daniel, General Hammond joined Jack in attendance, listening attentively.  
  
"This machine was powered by ionisation in the planet's atmosphere linked to geomagnetic storms also created a subspace bubble, where 14 planets, including Earth were cut off from the normal flow time. This made other planets outside the subspace bubble unreachable through the gate system. Assuming this has happened again, it means that it would be useful to find out what planets we can contact through a sequence of random diallings as to establish exactly where and how large the bubble is." Sam finished her briefing. Daniel raised his hand slightly indicating he had a question,  
  
"Will P6Z 435 be in the bubble?" he asked off handedly. Sam answered,  
  
"In all probabilities it should be, but I can't be sure until we try to dialling the co ordinates." Daniel nodded, content with her answer.  
  
"Major Carter?" Teal'c piped up.  
  
"Could it be that there is another Major Carter and Daniel Jackson on P6Z 435 if they are not in the bubble?" he asked. Sam breathed out slowly,  
  
"It's possible, if the planet is outside the subspace bubble than there could be another Daniel and I and we would be experiencing the normal time flow or maybe slower." The possibility of another Sam and Daniel in the universe brought silence over the room. All eyes turned towards General Hammond as his orders. He nodded defiantly,  
  
"You have a go."  
  
P6Z 435 1117  
  
Sam pushed in the co ordinates for Earth for what seemed like the millionth time that day and put her hand in the centre of DHD, but as with all the other attempts the Stargate remained closed. She looked at the gate despairingly.  
  
"How could this possible? We gated here so why can't we get back?" Sam asked in frustration. She looked at the gate thoughtfully and instantly had an idea,  
  
"I'll try the Tokrah, there might be something wrong with our gate." She hypothesised to herself; after all there no one listening, Daniel was taking a nap behind her, snoring audibly. She slowly inputted the symbols from memory and took a breath before placing her hand on the DHD once again, but again she was unsuccessful. Sam tried every address she knew but the Stargate remained de activated. She sat down heavily,  
  
"Okay we are stuck on this planet with supplies for only two days." She tried to explain the whole situation to herself logically; slightly afraid of what could happen. Sam looked around her at the landscape and could see a light forest in the distance, large pine trees were visible above a layer of small bushes; it was a significant contrast from the sandy and arid desert terrain they were camped on. She stood up, throwing a flask of water over her shoulder and set off towards the forest, not wanting to disturb Daniel's peaceful nap.  
  
SGC 0930  
  
As the meeting ended, Teal'c and Daniel went to his quarters to look in his files for any useful information that would help and Jack stood up, immediately following Sam to the Stargate controls, talking as he walked,  
  
"Carter we only have 15 minutes until the loop begins again so how bout skipping the rest of the planets and seeing if we can get P6Z 435 huh?" He suggested off handedly. Sam looked back at him as if he was joking,  
  
"15 minutes sir?" she asked confused. Jack nodded, pointing to his watch,  
  
"Yes your brief took half an hour, we went through the Stargate at 0945, in 15 minutes time." He explained tapping his watch thoughtfully. Sam quickly sat at the computer and searched for the co ordinates, the Stargate activated, locking each chevron as it went. After the sixth the two officers held their breath as they attempted to lock the 7th and most important chevron. As the Stargate turned and stopped at the symbol the cage come down but did not light up. The computer beeped,  
  
"Cannot establish a connection." She read dejectedly from the computer screen. Jack clenched his hands into fists in anger. Sam looked at the computer confused,  
  
"This means that P6Z 435 isn't in the subspace bubble but how could that be?" she asked herself out loud. Jack reached for the phone on the wall beside him and dialled the General's office,  
  
"Yes sir, it was unsuccessful, yes sir." He had a brief conversation before he put the phone back in its cradle. Teal'c walked up the stairs and entered the room,  
  
"Any progress O'Neill?" he asked impatiently. He shook his head,  
  
"No the planet outside the bubble so we can't gate there." Jack sighed dejectedly.  
  
"Which means that are in the normal time loop?" Teal'c enquired to Sam. She turned from the computer,  
  
"Yes, they could be living in the normal time flow." She affirmed. The sound of the Stargate activating turned their attention towards the Gate Room. Jack looked at his watch, 0945, the exact time they went through the Stargate.  
  
"It's Showtime boys and girls." He mumbled in a sarcastic tone.  
  
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COLONEL O'NEILL'S QUARTERS 0421  
  
O'Neill was woken up by the now becoming ever familiar knocking at his door. He sat up in bed, rubbing his forehead trying to get rid of the migraine that was developing. He stood out of bed and yelled through the door,  
  
"I'll be in the lab in 5 minutes Carter." He heard a muffled voice in reply,  
  
"Yes sir." Sam answered, slightly shocked by him knowing it was her at the door. He went over to his closet, pulling out his uniform,  
  
"Couldn't done this on a better day, maybe my birthday.." He trailed off, mumbling to himself as he dressed.  
  
SGC CHEYENNE MOUNTAIN COMPLEX 0450  
  
Jack entered the lab and as Sam turned around but he stopped her even getting a word in,  
  
"I know you want to tell me about the acid in the soil but I have something more important to talk to you about." He began. Sam closed her mouth slowly, slightly bewildered,  
  
"Ok what is it sir?" Sam asked not wanting to know how the Colonel knew about the sulfuric chloride in the soil since she had only just discovered herself a mere half an hour ago. He clapped his hands together,  
  
"We are caught in another one of those time loops." Jack broke the news to his colleague. Sam raised her eyebrows,  
  
"Really? Since when?" she asked curious.  
  
"Since we went to P6Z 435, and yes I am aware you haven't been to P6Z 435 but trust me, we have, at least we tried to." He answered, remembering this same conversation with Daniel the last time they were trapped in the time loop. Sam sighed,  
  
"Ok so what exactly happened?" she enquired making sure she understood everything that had happened, it would help her later on when running simulations.  
  
"Ok well just like now, you knocked on the door of my quarters, interrupting my peaceful sleep, said you needed to show me something, so I came in, you told me about the acid in the soil and the need for the DECS. The next day, at 0945, we were in the Gate Room ready to go, you and Daniel went the through the gate first and than Teal'c and I followed. We got thrown back into the gate room and then I was back on my bed and it started all over again." He described, it was like a broken record. Teal'c entered the lab looking rather annoyed,  
  
"I feel your pain brother!" Jack exclaimed loudly, throwing his hands out to Teal'c dramatically. Teal'c tilted his head sideways, slightly confused by O'Neill's behaviour. Sam had to physically cover her mouth to stop herself laughing out loud. She thought for a moment, a theory was already developing in her mind.  
  
"So that was the first loop right? What number is this?" she inquired. Teal'c stepped forward to join the conversation as Jack answered,  
  
"Third, last time was tried to dial P6Z 435 but we couldn't." he informed her; it was getting monotonous explaining it over and over. Sam looked out the door daydreaming for a moment but than a thought hit her,  
  
"What happened to Daniel and I sir?" she asked slightly anxious. Teal'c answered,  
  
"We are unaware, in the previous loop you mentioned, because we couldn't contact P6Z 435 that you and Daniel Jackson made it to the planet and are still there, living in another time." He explained what had previous taken place. Sam shook off the thought of herself being stuck on another planet as her previous theory surfaced,  
  
"It's possible that another planetary body may have interrupted the connection to P6Z 435, you said that Daniel and I went through the Stargate before you?" she enquired hoping her prove her theory. The two men nodded in response and Sam continued,  
  
"Daniel and I could have gotten past just before it moved into the path of the connection, then, when you tried to get past, it pushed the connection back and you were brought back here." She hypothesised. Jack raised his eyebrows,  
  
"But why the whole looping thing, I mean isn't it cruel enough not letting us see that beautiful planet?" he asked sarcastically, clearly frustrated. Sam smiled slightly,  
  
"I'll check over my notes but I think I may know what happened sir." She tried to instil hope in her fellow team members. Jack glanced at his watch,  
  
"Nice to see you again General." He mumbled as Hammond entered the lab, looking slightly angered.  
  
"What is all this commotion? I heard someone yelling a moment ago." He questioned the group. Teal'c and Sam immediately looked at Jack but he diverted the topic,  
  
"So? What do we do to fix it?" He asked, simply dismissing General Hammond's presence but he interrupted,  
  
"Fix what?" he asked, slightly behind in the conversation. O'Neill shook his head,  
  
"Oh I am so not explaining this again! Carter!" He exclaimed, handing the duty to her. Hammond looked at the Colonel in confusion,  
  
"What is going on here?" He demanded. Sam decided to explain,  
  
"We are experiencing another time loop sir, I believe I can find out what's happening."  
  
"Another time loop?" Hammond asked. O'Neill rolled his eyes in frustration and simply left the room, Teal'c following behind him, leaving Sam to explain the situation. Hammond watched them leave and turned back towards her,  
  
"They are a little frustrated sir." She clarified. The general shook his head, still confused about the whole situation.  
  
P6Z 435 1636  
  
Daniel opened his eyes and sat up slowly. He felt beside him for his glasses and pulled them onto the bridge of his nose. Daniel scanned the campsite but saw no sign of Sam, he stood up quickly and walked over to wear his pack sat, pulling out his radio,  
  
"Sam, come in Sam." He radioed.  
  
"Yeah Daniel, I'm in the forest over the hill just looking for some food, I'll be back in 15 minutes, Carter out." She replied. Daniel dropped the radio back into his bag and reached in for one of the many books had brought with him, Ancient Egypt: A History. He was so enthralled in the book that he did not hear her return with an armful of various fruits she had collected. Sam dropped her gear and looked at Daniel, rolling her eyes at the sight of his nose in a book,  
  
"Daniel, have you tried dialling out again?" she asked interrupting his thoughts. Daniel put down the book, slipping his bookmark at his spot and closing it slowly.  
  
"No I haven't, do you have any idea why we wouldn't be able to dial out?" He asked. She shook her head,  
  
"It doesn't make sense, what is even more confusing is that fact that Colonel O'Neill and Teal'c didn't come through the Stargate with us." Sam commented.  
  
"Could they have stayed behind for some reason? We did go through the Stargate before them, something may have happened." Daniel queried. She shook her head,  
  
"No, if they did pulled back, they would've sent a probe through the Stargate to tell us of the problem, if it was too dangerous to send anyone" She explained the possibility. The two sat in silence, the only sound that could be heard were cicadas chirping in the distance.  
  
"Sam, do you mind if I ask you a personal question?" Daniel requested, slowly, cautiously. She shot him a look of suspicion,  
  
"Go ahead." She answered, tentatively. Daniel breathed in deeply,  
  
"What's going on between you and Jack?" he asked frankly; glad to get the question off his mind. Instantly Sam lifted her head quickly,  
  
"What do you mean what is going on?" she asked, a slight hint of anxiety.  
  
"I mean it's been obvious." he trailed off, not knowing what to say. Alarms went off inside Sam's head, if it was obvious to Daniel, was it obvious General Hammond? When was it obvious? Had General Hammond found out about the time when her and Colonel O'Neill were supposed to be Zaytarks? Did it mean one of them could be taken off the Stargate program because of it? A thousand thoughts seemed to run through her mind simultaneously. She quickly shook them into the back of her mind; it was not the time or the place to discuss such thoughts.  
  
"What is obvious?" she asked innocently, hoping to cover her reaction of shock from her fellow team member, it didn't work Daniel shook his head, knowing Sam was trying to avoid the topic.  
  
"Come on Sam, we all know that there's more between you and Jack than just mateship in military rank." Daniel observed, deciding to stop beating around the bush on the issue. Sam stood up and turned away from Daniel, not letting him see the look of astonishment and possibly fear on her face.  
  
"I'm sorry Sam, I shouldn't have asked you." He admitted, apologetically. She turned around with a smile on her face,  
  
"I don't blame you, there are probably other people on the base who want to ask that exact same question, I sometimes ask myself." She admitted, dismissing his apology. She returned to where she was originally sitting and sighed,  
  
"All I can say is that." she began, trying to find the right words to describe the situation. Daniel had an idea what she was trying to say,  
  
"You know there's something more there but you won't let it interrupt your professional relationship in the military?" Daniel finished her sentence. Sam nodded,  
  
"Yes, at this moment I am Major Samantha Carter and he is Colonel Jack O'Neill, my commanding officer and it will probably remain that way." She commented briefly. Another moment of silence crept through the camp, as the chirping became increasingly louder as day turned to night.  
  
SGC BRIEFING ROOM THE NEXT DAY 0630  
  
Sam, as usual, took her position at the front of the room, a diagram of a group of planets and moon on the screen behind her, a laser pointer in hand ready to begin. General Hammond entered and was handed a file, when he was seated she began.  
  
"Based on Colonel O'Neill and Teal'c's information of the previous loops I have come up with a theory of how this time loop has occurred a second time." She started, stepping to the side of the screen, and pointing to the screen.  
  
"When Daniel and I went through the Stargate, we were transported to the planet as normal," Sam made a direct line from the Earth and P6Z 435, a blue line indicated the connection. She continued,  
  
"However before Teal'c and Colonel O'Neill stepped into the Stargate, a moon or another planet moved into the connection blocking anything passing through to P6Z 435. When Colonel O'Neill and Teal'c went through, the body, blocking their pathway to the planet, pushed them back to Earth, and they found themselves back in the Gate Room." She explained. Jack put up his hand slightly,  
  
"Colonel?" she asked.  
  
"So we were pushed back home, but why the whole annoying and highly distressing time loop?" he asked. Sam pointed back to the screen,  
  
"I was getting to that." She began, giving him a slightly angered look, for interrupting her. He held up his hands in his defence as she continued the briefing.  
  
"Now what I believe has happened, is that when the moon interrupted the connection to P6Z 435, it caused a shift in the moon's gravitational field, causing a large interruption to the subspace field and so created the bubble around the planets, since P6Z 435 is outside the bubble they could be experiencing a normal time flow or an entirely different one." Sam explained, Jack looked at her blankly; not really understanding what the Major was prattling on about but believed she knew what she was doing, she had been right the last time.  
  
"Major Carter, with this information have we found out, is there any way of getting to P6Z 435 to see if the other Major Carter and Dr Jackson are on the planet?" The general asked. Sam grimaced,  
  
"Well sir, we are caught in the time loop which means that the only planets we can contact are the ones also stuck in the subspace bubble and they are all planets the are classified "off limits" because of the large presence of Gohaul forces." She broke the harsh news to the group before her. Daniel looked slightly shocked,  
  
"So that means that we won't be able to get the planet until we figure out how to break the time loop?" he asked for clarification. She nodded sadly, Jack looked around at all the faces around the room, looks of sadness and hopelessness covered all of them.  
  
"So we are just going to leave Carter and Daniel on that planet to starve to death?!" he yelled angrily. But no one dared answer, each of them not wanting to break the grim reality of the situation to him. Sam looked over at him in shock; she had never seen him have such an angry reaction before. When Jack received no answer, he threw back his chair heatedly, leaving the room in a cloud of anger. He walked rapidly to his quarters, ignoring glances from fellow officers that had to jump out of his path to avoid being thrown to the floor. As he reached his room, Jack slammed the door behind him, photo frames jostling from their positions on the walls of the room. He fell to the bed and tried to calm himself, unclenching his fists and slowing his breathing. A knock came at the door but he gave no answer. Teal'c slowly opened the door and peered into the room.  
  
"Are you alright O'Neill?" he asked cautiously, genuine concern clear in his voice.  
  
"We are just sitting in that room while Carter and Daniel on some alien planet at this moment thinking that someone is bound to come for them, but we're saying, "I'm sorry we are too afraid of the Gohaul to save your life, better luck next life!" Jack exclaimed, venting some of his anger. Teal'c nodded, knowing that he needed time alone. Teal'c stepped out the room and closed the door slowly behind him, leaving Jack alone with his thoughts.  
  
P6Z 435 1925  
  
Daniel added sticks to the campfire blazing in the centre of their campsite. Sam was at the DHD trying in vain to dial back home but as with their many other attempts the Stargate failed to open. She dropped angrily to the ground in front of the fire, her DECS crunching as she sat. She sighed deeply,  
  
"I don't know what is going on, we aren't able to dial out, Colonel O'Neill and Teal'c never made it here and we only have food supplied for two days, three at the most." She examined the situation they found themselves in. Daniel simply continued adding to the fire, not knowing what to say. Sam pulled a large purple fruit from a vine next to her and split it in half. She cautiously smelt it and then broke off a piece, placing it on her tongue. She chewed it thoughtfully, then handed Daniel the other half. He looked at the fruit with contempt.  
  
"Don't worry Daniel, it's just like a pear." She assured him, Daniel took the fruit, still not entirely convinced and began eating. He chewed thoughtfully, his mind deciding to do some travel back in time.  
  
"Do you remember the mission that that guy made exact robotic copies of us?" he asked, feeling like reminiscing. Sam nodded,  
  
"That's when I was still just a captain," she thought back, it felt like such a long time. Daniel laughed softly and she looked at him confused,  
  
"Why are you laughing?" she asked curiously.  
  
"I just remember when he that guy was telling us about he made us "better" he was saying how interesting you were." he laughed mid sentence. Sam shook her head also smiling, remembering it clearly, Daniel continued,  
  
"And you said "Colonel," and he replied, "Easy Captain,"" Sam started to laugh at the memory, all the humorous moments that had happened off world were usually in some way connected to the Colonel. She narrowed her eyes, thinking back to another memory,  
  
"I've always wondered, when you went to that alternate universe, what was it like? I mean were we all the same?" she queried. Daniel thought back and smiled at the memory,  
  
"Well you had long hair," he commented. Sam raised her eyebrows surprised. Daniel continued,  
  
"And you and Jack were.closer than you are now." He commented, trying to find the right word to describe it without embarrassing her.  
  
"Oh." Was all Sam could say in reply, and changed the subject quickly, as they were speaking of humorous and slightly confusing situations she remembered one,  
  
"Do you remember at the end of that who time loop incident how the Colonel was sitting eating Oatmeal and you asked him if had done anything crazy in the time loop, do you remember that?" she queried, chewing thoughtfully on her last bit of fruit. Daniel threw the core of the fruit to the ground and wiped his hands,  
  
"Yes, he just looked at you weirdly and kept eating, he never gave us a definitive answer." Daniel thought back,  
  
"What would you do if you knew everything was going to go back the way it was?" he asked Sam, it was the perfect way to while away the night. Sam shrugged her shoulders,  
  
"I don't know, I mean I would probably go and see Dad but that's probably it." She answered, not having really thought about it before. Daniel frowned,  
  
"Oh come on, there has to be something you've always wanted to do but couldn't because you could get in trouble for it, maybe something to do with the Colonel maybe?" Daniel hinted, trying to hide the huge smile forming on his face. Sam gave Daniel a stern frown,  
  
"No I haven't, not to do with the Colonel anyway, but I have always wanted to tell the whole world about the Stargate program just so I wouldn't have the pressure of being one of the select few that know about it and have to deny any knowledge of it you know?" She asked, hoping he would understand. Daniel nodded,  
  
"I know how it feels, people come up to you with pictures of Anubis' ship flying into the atmosphere and you want to be the one to reassure them that they aren't crazy, that they aren't seeing things but you can't and it's hard sometimes." He sympathised with her.  
  
**************************************************************************** *********************************  
  
COLONEL O'NEILL'S QUARTERS 0421  
  
Jack looked into the mirror on the nightstand beside his bed he saw his own reflection, he brow drawn together and the wrinkles around his eyes becoming more and more prominent by the second, the worry was starting to show on his face. As Sam knocked for the third time he did not move, wanting to make her believe he was not there, tears forming in his eyes at the thought of her being caught on another planet, with no idea that they could never come and save her, the she would never see any of them again.  
  
"Colonel, its Major Carter, are you here sir?" she yelled through the door but he remained silent. Jack heard her footsteps walk away from the door and he stood up, grabbing his car keys from the hook beside the door, wiping the tears from his eyes quickly. He walked through the SGC stealthily, as he stepped out of the base; he looked towards the sky,  
  
"Nice day for fishing," he commented, trying to divert his thoughts to one of his favourite past times. His car pulled away from Cheyenne Mountain and he headed for his favourite fishing spot, Lake Charlie as he had affectionately named it. His phone rang continually throughout the day, vibrating through the wood of his boat, each time he ignored it, not wanting to go to SCG and having to face the reality that Sam was stuck on a planet somewhere in the universe, slowly running out of food and he was powerless to stop it.  
  
SGC GENERAL HAMMOND'S OFFICE 0734  
  
A knock came at the door and Hammond told the visitor to enter. Major Carter opened the door; he noticed that she was looking slightly concerned about something.  
  
"What is it Major?" he asked cautiously.  
  
"I have been unable to reach Colonel O'Neill sir, I went to his room this morning but there was no answer, I have been ringing his cell phone all afternoon, it is turned on but no one is answering." She expressed her concern.  
  
"Do you know where he is?" Hammond asked. Sam thought for a moment,  
  
"He might be fishing on Lake Charlie sir." She replied, thinking out loud, many times when the Colonel was upset by something he went fishing, he had always retained that it was the best stress relief, but she did not know what he could be upset about.  
  
"Well why don't you go and see if he's there?" he ordered, as if it was the logical thing to do. Sam shook her head,  
  
"One problem sir, I don't know where Lake Charlie is, apparently Colonel O'Neill only calls it Lake Charlie but there is no lake in America with that name." She informed her superior. Hammond sighed realising the significance of the name, Charlie, Colonel O'Neill's son. But he waved off her concern,  
  
"I wouldn't worry about him Major, he probably just wants a couple of hours alone." Sam nodded and stood at attention before leaving the general's office. As she was walking to her office she met up with Daniel.  
  
"Have you heard from Colonel O'Neill? He's not answering his cell phone and I don't know where he is." She inquired. Daniel sneezed before answering,  
  
"No, the last time I saw him was yesterday, sorry." He replied. She waved off his apology and make tracks back to her office.  
  
LAKE CHARLIE 1054  
  
His phone rang for what seemed like the hundredth time that day, he peered down at his phone to see if it was Sam again but the caller id told him it was Teal'c. Jack picked up the phone,  
  
"O'Neill Fishing Enterprises, Trout, Barramundi, Rainbow fish anything you want, we've got the gear for you." He answered, creating his own business and slogan.  
  
"O'Neill, why have you not been answering your phone, Major Carter has been worried, trying to contact you all day." Teal'c asked sternly. Jack pulled his rod over his shoulder and cast it into the water,  
  
"I'm taking the day off Teal'c, I'm fishing." He explained, as if it was a perfectly good excuse.  
  
"You must come back to the SGC so we can investigate the time loop, to help Major Carter and Daniel Jackson." He advised.  
  
"I'm taking the next couple of loops off, relaxation time, you should try it Teal'c, after all everything will always go back to way it was." Jack hung up the phone, and continued fishing not giving the SGC a second thought.  
  
**************************************************************************** ********************************* SGC SECOND DAY OF LOOP 0943  
  
General Hammond was writing at his desk when a junior officer entered his office breathless,  
  
"General, Colonel O'Neill is the commissary room making a scene sir." He informed him, through gulps of air. The general looked at the officer unbelievingly,  
  
"What's is he doing?" he asked. The officer pointed out of the room,  
  
"You have to see it for yourself, you won't believe it sir." He responded. Hammond shook his head and stood up from his desk, letting the junior officer lead the way. A few minutes later they turned the corner into the commissary room and spotted the Colonel standing beside an enclosure with two chickens running around inside and a small barbeque beside it.  
  
"Colonel O'Neill what the hell do you think you are doing?" he yelled. He watched as Colonel O'Neill leaned down into the pen and picked something up from inside. He looked up at the General,  
  
"Hello General! Care for some breakfast!" he yelled back, tying an apron around his waist that beared the words KISS THE COOK and reaching a white chefs hat. He then revealed 2 eggs in his hand, cracking it against the side of the hot plate. A group had gathered behind General Hammond to see what O'Neill was doing, whispers flew thick and fast across the room, many of the officers laughing at Colonel O'Neill's antics. As the eggs simmered on the barbecue, Jack looked up from cooking, lifting the egg with a spatula towards the crowd,  
  
"It beats Fruit Loops!" He called out cheekily.  
  
**************************************************************************** *********************************  
  
SGC SECOND DAY OF LOOP 0939  
  
Jack pushed a wheelbarrow down the hallways of the SGC, passing many curious onlookers including Daniel who spotted him wheeling past the library he was studying in. He rubbed his eyes to make sure he wasn't seeing things but dropped his paper on Texts of The Ancients and left the room, following the Colonel. Daniel rushed down the hallway after him and turned the corner only to see the door to the Gate Room closing. He immediately turned and headed for the stairs to the Control Room and as he reached them he looked down and watched Jack in uncertainty. He had parked the wheelbarrow right in front of the Stargate and was throwing what looked to be Twinkies into the activated Stargate. Jack looked up from where he was standing in front of the Stargate and spotted Daniel standing above in the Control Room. He held up the Twinkie for his benefit and waved, yelling up to him,  
  
"Just giving them a little of what Earth has to offer, it's sweet and good to eat!" He answered, sounding like his very own commercial. Daniel stood perfectly still, not able to believe what he was seeing. He reached for the keyboard to the computer to disengage the Stargate but there was not keyboard at the computer, it had been pulled from its port.  
  
"What is going on Daniel Jackson?" Teal'c's voice came from behind Daniel as Teal'c stepped from the stairs, standing beside Daniel at the controls. Teal'c raised his eyebrow at the view of Jack throwing small, packaged food through the Stargate; a faint smile crawled across his face as he glanced at the watch on his wrist.  
  
**************************************************************************** ********************************* SGC MAJOR CARTER'S OFFICE 0901  
  
Dr Fraiser entered Sam's office, smiling more than usual. She looked up from her computer simulation and stared at Fraiser suspiciously, "What's going on Janet?" she questioned her friend, wanting to be let in on the joke. Fraiser walked over to Sam and held out a length of fabric,  
  
"I'm sorry Sam but I was ordered to blindfold you." She replied, the smile not leaving her face. Sam stared at her, becoming more and more confused by the minute,  
  
"Why? What's going on?" Sam demanded.  
  
"Don't worry I'm not going to hurt you or anything, I just need to take you somewhere and you have to be blindfold for it. Colonel's orders." She explained.  
  
"Colonel's? Since when do you have to obey his orders?" Sam queried Janet suspiciously. She ignored the question,  
  
"All will be revealed in due time Sam, trust me you'll be fine." She held the blindfold out to Sam for permission, she slowly turned around and her eyes were instantly covered, Fraiser tied the cloth at the back of her head and took her hand,  
  
"Ok you ready?" she asked, happily, clearly excited about the whole situation. Sam rolled her eyes under the blindfold,  
  
"I guess I mean I don't even know where I'm going." She exclaimed at loss, not really knowing what she was going to happen to her. She felt Janet pull at her hand and she started to walk slowly, being led by her best friend out of her office and towards her awaiting surprise.  
  
Jack stood in front of the Stargate facing the control room; he fidgeted in his black tuxedo, an unusual look for the Colonel. He looked at the wall carefully, studying it with great intent as if trying to decipher an undiscovered Goa'uld ancient text. Teal'c stood behind him also in a black tuxedo, the pair looking like the Blues Brothers.  
  
"What do you think O'Neill?" he asked curiously, indicating to the wall. Jack nodded,  
  
"I like it." He pronounced, graciously. Jack rubbed his hands together nervously, this was the day he had been waiting for, ever since he had first met Sam this is all his dreams were ever about, about this moment being fulfilled, at least for a couple of hours. He knew in normal circumstances he could never do anything so outrageous but thanks to the time loop he could finally tell Sam everything he had ever wanted to say to her ever since he first laid eyes on her, their first ever briefing to do with the Stargate program. He had treated her as every other man in the military would treat a woman who was a threat to their position, immediate defensive strategies. Every time he had made a remark about her incompetency to do the job, she always hit back straight away, taking no punches without punching back. Jack smiled at the memory, and now he was on the verge of his long time dream. He looked at his watch and turned to Teal'c,  
  
"Well they should be getting my resignation about now." He hypothesised, as if it was a very important part of what was about to happen. Jack kicked at the floor with his shoe; his nerves were starting to accelerate as the time drew nearer. He reached into his pocket and his heart almost stopped beating until he felt a hard, furry object at the bottom of his pocket and breathed a sigh of relief. Daniel entered the room, pulling his blazer jacket over his shoulders,  
  
"I hope everything goes well Jack," he gave good luck. Jack nodded, his nerves leaving him speechless.  
  
"Janet, where are we going?" Sam asked for then tenth time as she was walking blindfolded down the corridor. She laughed in response,  
  
"I'm not going to ruin the surprise." She answered cryptically.  
  
"Come on Janet at least give me a clue." Sam protested.  
  
"I can't tell you, you'll find out in about 5 minutes." She promised. Sam continued to be led by her best friend, other SGC personnel looked out from their offices and quarters at the strange procession with peaked interest. As they came to the door of the Gate Room, Janet removed Sam's blindfold. She shook her hair back into position after the blindfold had flattened it. Janet smiled and pointed to the door,  
  
"Your surprise is in there, if you think you are ready for it, go in." she instructed Sam; a large smile could not be taken from Janet's face. Sam looked at Janet confusion, curiosity and a little fear. Tentatively reached her card to the lock, she scalded herself for being so childish, after all she was an Air Force Officer, and she was prepared for anything that may be behind that door, or so she thought. She swiped her security card confidently, as the door to the Gate Room slid open her mouth dropped open in amazement and disbelief. She spotted the rest of her team, Jack, Teal'c and Daniel standing in a line in expensive black suits, red roses pinned to their collars, Jack fidgeting with something in his pocket. Sam looked at the wall adjacent from the Stargate and felt her heart skip two or three beats. She was so shocked; words flew from her mouth, tears coming to her eyes and immediately flowed down her cheeks, an overwhelming feeling of happiness engulfing her body. The wall was covered in pink spray paint, a message written saying,  
  
I LOVE YOU  
  
SAM  
  
WILL YOU  
  
MARRY ME?  
  
Sam couldn't move, her legs felt like they were going to give way underneath her, her whole body shaking with the raw emotion she felt. She had wished and hoped for this moment for such a long time but was totally unprepared for what was happening. She looked over at Jack, his usual goofy grin smiling back at her. Sam cautiously tried to step forward, her legs feeling like jelly.  
  
"S-Sir," she managed to say through gulps of emotion, a new wave of tears coming to her eyes. She continued walking towards him, with every step becoming more and more confident in the situation. As she walked by Daniel, who standing first in line, he sneezed into a tissue, she laughed through her tears, Daniel blushed embarrassed. Teal'c bowed respectfully as she passed him, she thanked him in a low whisper that was barely audible. Sam's stomach immediately started to quiver uncontrollably when she reached the last person in the line.  
  
"Wh-what's happening sir?" she asked in disbelief. Jack indicated to the wall flippedly,  
  
"Well I thought that would've about summed it up." he commented. Sam laughed, the smile that had covered her face at the moment she saw her surprise, immediately grew bigger as she stood face to face with Jack, the man she had know for a very long time she loved. Jack tried to compose himself in the situation,  
  
"Ok" he resigned to himself, knowing the time was upon him. He shakily got down onto one knee and looked up at Sam, taking a deep breath to settle his nerves  
  
"Well here goes, I'm not very good at this so don't laugh at me," He requested, up front before starting. Sam giggled in reply,  
  
"Ok." She whispered. Jack wiped his hands on his pants, the sweat making an imprint on his luxurious and expensive rented suit for the occasion.  
  
"The first day I ever met you, I was the typical male, trying to prove my superiority over you, hiding the fact that I thought you were the most beautiful woman I had ever seen. But of course I underestimated you and to put it simply, I was brought back to earth, you were always one step ahead of me, my ego slightly bruised after that confrontation." He admitted.  
  
"Sorry sir." She apologized to him, wiping the tears from her eyes, the feeling of pure happiness emanating from her  
  
"Anyway, after that time we were put together on the same team and yes it was hard at times to hide my feelings, sometimes I let them slip out at inopportune times particularly if they were off world but we won't discuss that now." he tried to keep on track.  
  
"So I am here today, in my flashy rental suit to finally be able to tell you what I have wanted to for 4 long years." Jack reached into his pocket and pulled a small jewellery box from it, his fingers trembling as he presented to Sam, pulling back the lid of the box, revealing a stunning, gold ring, sparkling diamonds creating a heart shape on the band. She choked back a new wave of tears as she saw the ring for the first time.  
  
"Samantha, will you marry me?" Jack asked, a solitary tear spilling from his eye, not able to control his emotions any longer. She held out her hand, it shaking from the sheer emotion of the moment. As he slipped the ring onto her finger, and held her hand in his they heard a sob from behind them. Together they turned to see who it was and saw Teal'c frantically wiping his eyes, trying not to show the tears that had escaped from his usually sober, expressionless face.  
  
"Hey buddy, you're not getting emotional on me are you?" Jack asked, grinning from ear to ear. Teal'c shook his head vehemently,  
  
"Of course not O'Neill." He stood taller, making himself seem to be in complete control, however Daniel was now using his tissue to wipe his eyes instead of his nose. The alarm on Jack's watch beeped, indicating that he only had a minute until the time loop would begin again. He jumped, turning to face Sam again,  
  
"So what do you think? Could you see yourself as the next Mrs Jack O'Neill?" Jack asked quickly, he needed to know before the time looped again or all of his work would be for nothing. Sam immediately looked down at the floor, feeling her cheeks go red,  
  
"Mrs Samantha O'Neill? I don't know." she asked uncertainly, toying with him. Sam raised her head, not able to keep a straight face,  
  
"Yeah, I could see myself as the next Mrs Jack O'Neill, I love you. and yes. I will marry you." She answered. Throwing her arms around him and kissing Jack to seal her decision.  
  
**************************************************************************** *********************************  
  
TO BE CONTINUED.  
  
Author's After Thought:  
  
Yes I know I am being cruel by making you wait to find out what happens in the next time loop, but I love drawing out the suspense. And as for the Sam and Daniel on the planet.will they die? Will Jack come up with a plan to save the woman he loves? You'll have to wait and see won't you? 


	2. Finally the big day

**************************************************************************** ************  
  
COLONEL O'NEILL'S QUARTERS 0421  
  
Jack woke up smiling from ear to ear when he heard the knock at his door. He jumped from his bed, lively and opened the door to greet Sam.  
  
"Good morning!" Sam jumped back in surprise at Jack's obvious good mood; he was usually grumpy when she woke him up early on his day off.  
  
"Good morning sir." She replied tentatively. Jack's beaming face definitely took Sam off guard.  
  
"You okay sir?" she asked.  
  
"Perfect! I know you are here to tell me about the soil acidity but, and this is an order Major, we are taking a break, you've been working too hard, we've both been working too hard." He announced.  
  
"But sir." she began slowly, not quite understanding how he knew about the soil or his idea of going on a break when they had a mission the next day.  
  
"No buts Major, it's an order, I'll give you 15 minutes to do what ever you need to do and meet me on the surface." Jack ordered, closing the door quickly before Sam could argue with him. He leant back on the closed door and replayed the events from the previous loop in his head in slow motion. It made him smile so much that the muscles around his mouth began to ache.  
  
Jack stood in his light blue jeans and loud, red and orange Hawaiian shirt waiting for Sam to arrive. As she stepped out of the elevator he saw her carrying an armful of files with her. He shook his head, he knew exactly where they would be going once they got to their destination. Sam wore dark, blue jeans and had a black, short-sleeved shirt on with the words, "TOTAL GEEK AND PROUD OF IT!" printed in white. Sam caught Jack's smile at her T - Shirt, "What? Don't think it's me?" she asked jokingly. Jack rolled his eyes, "It's.interesting." He chose his words carefully. Sam shook her head,  
  
"Chicken." She mumbled before continuing.  
  
"So.where are we going sir?" she asked eagerly.  
  
"Ah yes well that's a surprise, you'll like it." Jack reassured Sam. He indicated to his Land Rover, Sam gave him an uneasy look before strolling over to the car and pushing her bag and files into the boot. She jumped into the passenger seat beside Jack and her eyes slid sideways uncomfortably.  
  
"So, we ready to go?" Jack asked optimistically. Sam shifted in her seat,  
  
"Ready as I'll ever be, since I don't know where I'm going." Sam replied bitterly. Jack revved the engine and sped away from Cheyenne Mountain, leaving behind anything vaguely military.  
  
P6Z 435 1220  
  
"Daniel, have you found anything yet?" Sam radioed.  
  
"Nah, I found some ruins but they only seem to be broken pillars and slabs of some kind of rock, no writings. But I did find a series of caves, they seemed to be a possibly used for mining, I took a closer look at the rocks and there seems to be a large quantity of Naquadah here." Daniel reported.  
  
"We'll be able to extract some of the Naquadah for use back on Earth, meanwhile I have found some more fruits and nuts to eat but besides that it seems that this place has been deserted for a very long time. I'm heading back to camp, Carter out." She described, picking up the bag of fruits and nuts she had collected and turned back towards the Stargate.  
  
SGC GENERAL HAMMOND'S OFFICE 1127  
  
A knock came at the door and the General looked up from the papers he was reading.  
  
"Enter." The door opened and Teal'c and Daniel entered looking slightly concerned about something.  
  
"General have you seen or heard from Jack or Sam today?" Daniel asked. The general shook his head,  
  
"No, why is there a problem?" he asked.  
  
"I have not seen either of them today and we have a serious topic to discuss." Teal'c revealed, he wanted to find out how to stop the time loop as fast as possible, repeating the same day over and over was getting rather irritating. The General looked at Teal'c confused,  
  
"What serious topic?" He queried, no one had told him anything about this.  
  
"I think it would be more productive if we talked about this as a whole team, we will definitely need help from Sam on this one." Daniel guaranteed him. The General shook his head,  
  
"Well we'll check with base security, they might have gone off base." He guessed, picking up the phone and dialling the number for the main security. He had a brief conversation before placing the phone on the hook once more.  
  
"They left around 0430, apparently Colonel O'Neill said that him and Major Carter were "taking a break" and would be back this afternoon sometime. " Daniel gave the information a questioning look,  
  
"Tell me if I'm wrong, but don't we have a mission tomorrow? Why are they going on a "break now"?" he asked. He caught a glimpse of the mischievous smile on Teal'c's face, Teal'c rarely ever smiled; Daniel knew something was going on.  
  
"What? What are you smiling at Teal'c?" Daniel inquired curiously. Teal'c couldn't stop smiling, the Colonel was certainly taking full advantage of the time loop situation, but Teal'c decided to wait to tell Daniel and General Hammond until Jack and Sam returned.  
  
"Nothing, do not worry Daniel Jackson, everything will be fine." He reassured the two very confused and bewildered men with him in the office.  
  
SOMEWHERE IN COLORADO 1244  
  
Jack pulled down a dirt road off the main highway towards one of his cabins, he had brought the second one as it was very close to the SGC, when he wanted to get out of their for a while, it was the perfect place. Jack and Sam had not spoken the whole trip, Jack was mainly focussed on his driving but occasionally he would sneak a peek at Sam to try and gauge her reaction to his sudden decision to drag her out of the SGC. Most of the time he found her looking out the window lost in thought, probably trying to figure out where they were going, her beautiful smile filtering through the pale sunlight entering the car. It was a forest area of Colorado where she had never been before which made her slightly uncomfortable than usual. When Jack turned the car onto the dirt road Sam stretched in her seat, yawning.  
  
"I don't want to sound like an annoying 8 year-old, but are we there yet?" she asked mockingly. Jack smiled,  
  
"Well you do sound like an annoying 8 year-old with a weird shirt." he commented. Sam shot him a look of "Hey! Say that again and I'll knock your head off" so Jack decided to quit joking about her shirt.  
  
"Yes we are almost there, it's only a couple of miles up this road." Answering her original question.  
  
"So what is this place sir? I mean this isn't your cabin because that's in a completely different direction." she observed trying to guess where she was being taken.  
  
"No, not exactly, look can you hold on for like 3 minutes than you can see what is instead of guessing?" Jack protested.  
  
"Alright, alright, but this better be good because I have so much work to do I'm practically drowning in reports and information for tomorrow's mission." She complained, miserably. Jack smiled to himself,  
  
"I don't think you'll need to worry about that." he mumbled to himself. The road began to grow wider as Jack drove the car out into a clearing where a two-storey wooden house stood next to a beautiful lake between the surrounding forest. As Jack stopped the car outside the house, Sam got out and looked in awe at the beautiful home. It was built of pinewood with a pergola out the front to watch the spectacular view of the lake. Jack looked at Sam and grinned to himself.  
  
"So I guess this means you like it?" He asked as he reached into the back of the Land Rover and pulled out Sam's bags and files.  
  
"This is amazing sir, when did you get place?" Sam walked up the stairs onto the pergola and stroked the smooth banister of wood.  
  
"I picked it up a couple of months ago, she was a cheapy that needed some fixing up, so I fixed her up and whala here she is!" He motioned proudly to his creation, smiling cheekily. He slipped his key into the front door and pushed it open,  
  
"Ladies and lower ranked officers first." He motioned her inside with a smile. Sam gave him her best evil glare and punched him playfully in the arm as she walked in. As Sam walked in she took in the sights and sounds of the beautiful home. The smell of pine filled the room, the ground level was split, the lounge room was sunken into the floor, while the kitchen remained on the same level further towards the back of the house. A balcony on the side of the house led out to the lake, where Sam could just spot a small boat tied to the dock. Sam stepped down into the lounge room and saw a beautiful antique fireplace against the wall, a mantel sat above it with a picture of Jack in his Air Force Uniform looking stern and in control, it looked to be taken before he had entered the Stargate program. In the centre of the room sat two, cream leather sofas and a red Persian rug covering the floorboards. On the wall hung pictures of people fishing, holding up their catches with pride; Sam noticed there was none of Jack,  
  
"Where's your prize catch?" she asked him inquisitively, where he was standing behind her.  
  
"Ah yes well." he began trying to make up a feasible lie about why he wasn't in any of those pictures.  
  
"It's at my other cabin, in my trophy room." He declared off the top of his head. Sam turned around and gave him a look of doubt, her blue eyes sparkling in the light reflected from the lake outside. Jack shrugged his shoulders as if asking, "What do you want from me?" Sam spotted a photo on a coffee table beside one of the sofas and stepped over to take a closer look.  
  
"This is the house when you bought it?" she asked curiously, it looked very different from what it was now, it had no pergola out the front, the paint was chipping from the structure and the windows were hanging from their hinges, those being only a few of the differences in the picture.  
  
"Yeah, I was going to take another photo after I had finished sort as a before-and-after but I never got around to it." Jack replied casually. Sam shook her head n incredulity as she looked from the photo to the structure around her,  
  
"You did a really great job fixing this up sir, when did you get the time to do this?" she inquired amazed. Jack shrugged,  
  
"All that holiday time we have been getting, this is where I have been spending it, finishing her up so that I have a home-away-from-home that close to base." Jack dropped his keys on to the table beside the front door,  
  
"If you think this is good you should see the view." He pointed out the sliding glass door to the lake. They both headed out of the house and onto the dock, Sam looked over the spectacular lake surrounded by lush green trees in awe.  
  
"This is so beautiful, I cannot believe you scored a place like this." Sam breathed, dumbfounded.  
  
"Well you know I'm a pretty savvy negotiator." He joked. Sam looked around aimlessly,  
  
"So what are we going to do here sir?" she asked ignoring his attempted joke. Jack grinned mischievously to himself.  
  
"Fish." He exclaimed excitedly. Sam rolled her eyes, for who knows how long he had always tried to get her to go fishing with him, well finally he would get his wish.  
  
"Okay fine just let me go and get my bag." Sam started to walk back inside the house and Jack called after her,  
  
"I'll get the gear and lunch then will I?" Sam, with her back turned, waved her hand idly indicating she had heard him. Jack sighed,  
  
"This should be interesting." He mumbled to himself as he walked towards his shed beside the lake to collect his rods and tackle for the trip.  
  
P6Z 435 1302  
  
Daniel stepped out of the lush forest onto the harsh desert; he strolled towards camp where Sam was already sitting busy at work. As he walked the sun was hot against his skin, he felt like he was about to cook like an egg on a hot plate. Suddenly a shadow fell over him, blocking out the harsh rays of the sun above him. Daniel stopped dead in his tracks; he knew shade doesn't just appear out of nowhere, he tentatively looked up and saw the underside of a Goa'uld Glider, facing directly towards their camp, it's weapons extended and at the ready. Daniel grabbed his radio in panic,  
  
"Sam! Get out of there! There's a glider that's about to attack! Get out of there!" He yelled down the cracked line.  
  
Sam jumped up in alarm at Daniel's warning, looking around and her eyes widened in fear and she spotted the Glider hovering directly above him. A pulse shot out from the glider aimed directly at her, she grabbed her bag with some supplies and immediately started to sprint towards the forest, the pulse exploding only inches behind her, where she had been sitting no more than 30 seconds before. As she ran through the soft sand, blasts continued to explode behind her, sending sand flying in every direction. Sam was finding it more and more difficult to run under the weight of her pack, each step became harder and she could feel herself slowing down and the explosions getting closer and closer to their intended target. She made a split second decision, dropping the bag to the ground and racing for the cover of the forest to avoid getting hit with the fatal electric pulse that continued to be fired from the glider. As she reached where Daniel was still standing a pulse hit the ground just under Daniel, he yelped in pain as Sam grabbed his arm and ran to the safety of the dense forest. Daniel collapsed into the dense shrubbery and held his leg in pain. Sam knelt down beside him,  
  
"Are you ok?" she asked. Daniel grimaced and pointed to his leg, Sam reached down and rolled up the leg of Daniel's pants that was now covered in blood and examined the wound.  
  
"It's pretty deep Daniel, I'm going to have to stop the blood loss or you won't make it." Sam clarified the extent of his injury, leaving her bedside manner for a more appropriate time. Daniel nodded, pulling off his jacket and handing it to her to use as a tourniquet. When Sam had finished strapping the wound she stood and looked around for safe place.  
  
"If we can get to the Naquadah caves we'll be safe for while." She suggested breathlessly. Daniel nodded slowly and Sam helped him up, giving him her shoulder for support as they pushed their way through the forest making their way towards the caves as fast as they could to avoid running into any patrols of Jaffa.  
  
SOMEWHERE ON LAKE CHARLIE 1311  
  
Jack slowed the boat down as it glided smoothly along the waters surface, ripples parted behind them as the engine began to decelerate. Jack pulled the anchor from beside the boat's controls and heaved it over the side, the chain disappearing into the clear blue water until the anchor hit the bottom of the lake and snagged on some unknown source. He turned around, rubbing his hands together, eager to begin fishing when he saw Sam sitting in a fold up beach chair, engrossed in SGC files piled up on her lap and another stack sitting beside her on the floor of the boat. Jack knew exactly where they belonged, sneaking up carefully beside her as to not alert her to his movement and quickly snatched the files from under her nose, throwing them over the side of the boat, the pages fluttering in the wind and eventually landing on the surface of the water. He bent down and picked up the other stack and again the papers landed in the water, as they absorbed the water they began to sink to the sea floor. Sam stood up and ran over to the side of the boat in vain,  
  
"What did you do that for sir?! There was 321 pages of research material in those files, they are important for tomorrow's mission!" She exclaimed angrily.  
  
"Trust me, you won't need them, besides, fishing is better." He commented off hand, not giving his actions another thought, pulling a fishing rod from the storage room and thrusting into her hands. Sam took it reluctantly, but suddenly thought about the Colonel's words.  
  
"What do you mean, "you won't need them"?" She asked narrowing her eyes suspiciously. Jack smiled mischievously to himself.  
  
"You'll see, right now it's times for fishing." He replied happily, staying off the topic of the mission. He pulled the hook onto the line extending from Sam's rod and expertly tied a knot in the end. He then took a live worm and threaded onto the hook, Sam's stomach did a belly flop as she watched the worm wriggle around with a large hole in its tiny, invertebrate body. Jack quickly hooked up his own rod and stood on the side of the boat at the ready.  
  
"Ever fished before Carter?" He enquired, needing to know if lessons were in order. Sam shook her head,  
  
"No, can't say that I have sir, but I'm sure an expert like yourself could show an amateur like me how it's done, by all means please demonstrate." Sam indicated to him, trying to cover the smile coming to her face. Jack paused, hearing the sarcasm in her voice but adamant to prove himself, decided to take the challenge.  
  
"Ok then." He responded confidently, pulling the rood back over his shoulder and casting in 20 or so metres over the surface of the water, the splash causing a ripple to cross the water. Jack waited for the line to sink under the weight of the sinker and slowly began to reel the line in, at every moment feeling Sam's eyes watching his every move judgingly. As he was reeling in the line his rood suddenly bent forward, the tip almost touching the water. Jack pulled back eagerly on the rod and pulled the line in quickly, after a 5 minutes or so fighting with the large fish that had swallowed his hook, Jack pulled it over onto the boat floor, leaning down and grasping the fish firmly by the tail, he looked at Sam proudly.  
  
"That's how it's done." Jack commented blissfully. Sam rolled her eyes, that challenge had definitely backfired on her. Jack carefully took the hook out of the fish's mouth and threw it into the esky he had brought along just in case he did actually catch something. He wiped the scales off his hands as he closed the lid,  
  
"Major, I believe it's your turn." He reminded her, rubbing his hands together in anticipation, he couldn't wait to see her attempt at trying to catch one as good as his if not catch one at all. Sam gave Jack a defiant stare but positioned herself carefully at the side of the boat and launched her line out into the water; she was not going to let the Colonel beat her without a fight. It took her a number of casts before she felt the strong tug on her line. Sam felt the adrenalin flow through her as she began reeling in the fish, every inch of line that she managed to pull back was soon taken back by the fish's stubbornness and tenacity. She pull back on the rod powerfully and swiftly reeled in the line, fighting the fish at every opportunity. Jack watched Sam curiously and narrowed his eyes suspiciously; she was in deep concentration, pulling the rod back sharply, the timing of her reeling was precise. After a lengthy power struggle Sam finally managed to haul her catch over into the boat as Jack leant over the fish and stared at it speechless. Sam stood tall, leaning against her rod in triumph; the fish flapping on the floor was a shark, at least twice the size of Jack's catch. Jack looked up from the fish and scratched his head in disbelief, looking around as if searching for the real person who had caught the fish.  
  
"Well how'd I do sir?" Sam asked mockingly. Jack smiled fakely, trying to hide his disbelief,  
  
"You know, nothing special I've caught heaps of these guys before." He stammered childishly. Sam shrugged her shoulders,  
  
"Must be beginners luck." She guessed. Jack eyes her suspiciously before pulling the fish from the deck of the boat,  
  
"Well time for lunch." He decided quickly, avoid his more embarrassment, picking up the esky before turning and heading into the cabin of the boat to prepare the fish. Sam shook her head and put her rod down over the seat, before following him in to help out.  
  
P6Z 435 1357  
  
It was a good 40 minutes before Daniel and Sam reached the caves. As they stepped inside the darkness, Daniel collapsed to the ground, unable to keep moving due to the pain in his left leg. Sam crouched next to the entrance of the cave and watched to see if they had been followed, after a minute or so she saw no sign of Jaffa Patrols and left the entrance to see to Daniel's wound.  
  
"Hey how's it feeling?" she asked, sitting down beside him.  
  
"Ok I guess, the pain isn't that bad." Daniel described through clenched teeth. Sam unravelled her makeshift tourniquet and examined the wound carefully. The blast had created a large circular wound on is leg; the skin around it had been badly burnt.  
  
"How bad is it?" Daniel asked slowly, not sure he wanted to know. Sam smiled at him reassuringly,  
  
"It's only reasonably small and you have minor burning on your skin but it'll be fine." She assured him. Sam replaced the bandage around his leg and found a large rock, placing it under Daniel's leg for elevation. Daniel sighed exhaustedly,  
  
"So now the Goa'uld are here and we still don't know how or why we can't get home." Sam nodded,  
  
"I still cannot understand why hasn't anyone come through the gate, General Hammond should of sent reinforcements by now or at least sent through a message to tell us what's going on." She exclaimed impatiently, it made her angry when she didn't know what was going on, she knew as much as anyone else about the Stargate, maybe even more and yet she couldn't figure out why they couldn't gate home.  
  
"I don't know, I don't know what we are going to do, were are trapped in here with the enemy outside waiting to pounce with no food or water." Daniel examined their situation defeatedly. Sam leant against the wall of the cave in despair,  
  
"I'm going to get some sleep, you should get some too, it's going to be a long day tomorrow." She suggested concerned. Daniel nodded in agreement and they both closed their eyes to get some much-needed sleep.  
  
TBC 


	3. Realisation

This chapter is a real Sam/Jack one, feelings and emotions and stuff. Just thought I'd inform you and don't worry Chapter 4.BIG ACTION TIME!!!  
  
I'M FINALLY GETTING TO THE GOOD STUFF SO HANG ON TO YOUR HATS!  
  
SOMEWHERE IN COLORADO  
  
The rest of Jack and Sam's relaxation time flew by quicker then they expected. After a lunch of grilled shark and potato salad, Jack turned his boat around and headed slowly back to civilisation. As he drove his Land Rover towards Cheyenne Mountain, Sam was talking excitedly about a convention on the Physics of the Universe: The New Discoveries of the 21st Century that she had been asked to speak at. As she spoke Jack glanced at her and his heart ached with guilt. In the back of his mind the knowledge that she was trapped on an alien planet but he couldn't save her tore him apart. Suddenly it hit him like a bullet through his stomach; he had let himself be consumed by his apparent helplessness and guilt about not being able to save Sam that he had wasted valuable time in the loop. He had just lost control and had not even considered that he could have tried something to save her. He cursed himself for being so weak, to allow his emotions to get the better of him. He immediately pushed down further on the accelerator, startling Sam from her train of thought.  
  
"Why the sudden hurry to get back to base?" Sam asked, curiously, it was his idea to get away from the SGC is the first place. But Jack did not answer her, instead his eyes remained closely fixed on the road ahead, his face show intense concentration. Sam looked over at him concerned; he was acting very different than he had been no more than an hour before. But Jack was determined to do everything he could to save Sam, even if it meant disobeying orders and possibly ending his career in the military.  
  
AN HOUR LATER.  
  
SGC CHEYENNE MOUNTAIN BRIEFING ROOM 1551  
  
"Colonel O'Neill what is this about?" General Hammond asked as he took his seat at the head of the table, Jack, with an old yellow classified file in his hand, and Teal'c stood at the front of the room waiting to start their briefing.  
  
"Yes well sir we have some important issues to discuss." Jack started more seriously than usual. Sam glanced around at the confused faces of both Daniel and General Hammond; they had never seen Jack so serious.  
  
"Years ago we experienced a time loop, when an alien archaeologist, Malikai on P4X 639 was experimenting with a time machine in order to go back to the past. " Jack began reading from the file; quickly glancing around the table to make sure that everyone knew what incident he was referring to. All of the people at the table nodded so Jack continued.  
  
"Well unfortunately we are stuck in another time loop." Jack broke the news, Sam immediately opened her mouth to ask millions of questions but Jack stopped her.  
  
"Hold on for a second Major." He requested, Sam closed her mouth slowly and leaned forward to listen closely.  
  
"It started when we were about to go through the Stargate to P6Z 435, Major Carter and Daniel stepped through the Stargate first and Teal'c and I followed. For some reason, which we will get later, Teal'c and I were thrown out of the Stargate back in the Gate Room and that is when the time loop began." Jack stopped to take a breath; he quickly looked at Teal'c for confirmation that he telling the story correctly, Teal'c nodded.  
  
"So then we woke up and the day was repeating itself and at 0954 on the mission day it would begin all over again, Teal'c and I were again the only ones who were aware of all this happening, the same as the previous time this happened." Jack described bitterly. Teal'c decided to continue the briefing.  
  
"What we did manage to find out with the assistance of Major Carter was that when Major Carter and Daniel Jackson went through the Stargate they proceeded straight to the planet."  
  
"But then some planet or something moved into the way of the connection and pushed myself and Teal'c back to Earth. The time loop was created because something caused something. Teal'c?" Jack said quickly, regressing into his usual "non scientific" state and realising he had dug himself into a hole, calling in back up on the subject  
  
"The connection caused a shift in the moon's gravitational field and thereby causing a large interruption to the subspace field around the planet." Teal'c finished off Jack's explanation.  
  
"Right." Jack ended his report suddenly; the room was filled with silence, expecting Jack and Teal'c to continue their report.  
  
"Questions, thoughts, comments?" Jack asked.  
  
"What happened to Daniel and I?" Sam asked uncomfortably, Jack, not mentioning anything about them after going through the Stargate worried her. Jack sighed, he had feared this question.  
  
"We don't know. We tried dialling to the planet before but we could not get a connection so we assume that the planet is not in the time loop." Jack answered solemnly but then continued on.  
  
"That is reason we have called you here, Teal'c and I want SG1 to go on a mission to recover Carter and Daniel." He explained his purpose for calling this emergency meeting.  
  
"But if we can't gate there how are we going to rescue us, them." Daniel inquired confusing himself. Jack decided to just drop his suicide plan on them, no holding back.  
  
"We want to gate to another planet in the bubble, steal a ship and fly to P6Z 435." He answered matter-of-factly. Sam gave them both a look of disbelief,  
  
"Are you serious?" she enquired, thinking it was another of the Colonel's jokes.  
  
"Oh we're serious but there is just one slight problem, Teal'c." Jack added, letting Teal'c do the dirty work.  
  
"The planets in the subspace bubble are all planets with a large presence of Goa'uld forces, they have subsequently been classified "off limits" for gate travel." Teal'c described their present problem. Daniel and Sam dropped their shoulders and sighed at the news, the General had not said a word the whole time and he sat with an expressionless face until finally he spoke.  
  
"It's out of the question Colonel, I cannot knowingly send an SG team through the Stargate when there are large amounts of Goa'uld forces on the other side of the gate."  
  
"But sir, Daniel and Carter are going to starve on that planet if we don't do something and do it fast." Jack protested. The General stood from his chair,  
  
"I'm sorry Colonel, but I cannot allow it." He ended the discussion, leaving the room abruptly. Jack's hands fell to his sides defeatedly,  
  
"Well that went well, I think it went well, don't you?" he queried in his typical sarcastic tone.  
  
"I'm sorry Jack but I can see the General's point of view on this, those worlds are labelled "off limits" for a reason, it would be suicide." Daniel commented. But Jack wasn't hearing a word of it, there was no way he was going to sit back and waste more time then he already had, it would be his fault of they died on the planet and it was up to him to do something about it.  
  
"I'm going to talk to General Hammond, knock some sense into him." Jack decided, racing out of the room.  
  
"Sir!" Sam stood and yelled after him but he was already out of the room and on his way to the General's office.  
  
"Leave him go Sam, he has to do this." Daniel responded thoughtfully. Sam stood from her chair, ignoring Daniel's plea and left the room in a flurry of anger and desolation, jogging her way towards Hammond's office to try and talk to Jack before he got himself court marshalled. As she turned the corner, she spotted the door to the General's office slam shut. Sam tip toed slowly up to the door and strained to hear the conversation inside.  
  
"General please, we need to at least try to recover Carter and Daniel from the planet, they would do the same thing if it was me on that planet." Jack pleaded his case actively; he was not going to back down for a minute until he agreed to the mission. Hammond stood beside his desk, his arms crossed over his chest in a defensive position.  
  
"I'm sorry Colonel, I just cannot risks the lives of any other SG member when we know that the team that goes through will face mass resistance." Hammond affirmed, standing his ground on the issue.  
  
"But sir." Jack began to protest but the General cut him off.  
  
"Now Jack, I know you have other reasons for wanting to go on this mission but your strong romantic feelings concerning Major Carter are clouding your judgement, you know full well that I am bound by my judgement. Unless the President gives me orders otherwise, I'm sorry but I cannot in all good conscience allow this mission to go ahead and you know that." He ordered, sympathising with Jack's position. Jack closed his eyes slowly, the General was right about Sam but he knew that he could never back down; Jack decided in that crucial moment that if General Hammond would not support his mission then he would go without his authorisation.  
  
"Fine sir." Jack replied, his tone expressing that the General had beaten him on the subject.  
  
"You're dismissed Colonel."  
  
Sam jumped when she heard footsteps coming towards the door, she silently scurried towards the closest door and stepped inside to avoid being caught listening in on Jack's person conversation. Sam kneeled in a storage closet, trying to slow down her breathing. The conversation she had overheard replayed over in her mind. "Your strong romantic feelings concerning Major Carter." that phrase repeated over and over like a favourite song that never got old. As footsteps trailed past the door, Sam pushed the door open a fraction and saw Jack walking towards the elevator, she waited until the doors of the elevator closed before slipping out of the closet and making her way back to her lab to do some serious thinking.  
  
P6Z 435 0721  
  
Daniel awoke with a start as he felt a strike of pain shoot straight up his leg.  
  
"Ow." He fumbled on the ground beside him for his glasses, pulling them onto his face. Daniel looked down at his leg; it had fallen from its perch and hit the ground hard. Sam stumbled from her dream after hearing Daniel's cry. She slowly stood up, stretching and yawning away her night's sleep.  
  
"Hey, what happened?" she asked, sitting down next to Daniel on the ground.  
  
"Oh my leg just fell while I was sleeping." Daniel waved off her concern.  
  
"Just let me check that make sure it hasn't gotten worse." Sam insisted, pulling away the tourniquet carefully to avoid any more unnecessary pain for Daniel.  
  
"It looks ok, you should be right as long as it doesn't get infected, make sure you stay off it." Sam observed cautiously. Daniel sighed,  
  
"Great, this should be fun." Sam walked slowly out of the cave entrance and intently stared around the forest, trying to spot any Jaffa lying in wait. When she was convinced they were alone she walked back in.  
  
"Daniel, I'm going to see if I can find out where the Goa'uld base is, try and find out who it is." Sam said, deciding to do some recon.  
  
"Okay, stay in radio contact though." Daniel said adamantly. Sam smiled, grateful for Daniel's concern,  
  
"Don't worry about me, I'll be fine." Exiting the cave and raising her zatgun, ready to defend herself if necessary.  
  
BASE COMMISSARY 1739  
  
Jack sat at a table with a black cup of coffee resting aimlessly in his hands. The whole situation with the time loop began to take its toll on him; barely able to keep his eyes open out of fatigue, sheer boredom and the draining effect of helplessness. He heard a group of footsteps behind him but didn't bother to turn to meet his company. Sam, Daniel and Teal'c all took seats at the table, Teal'c sitting beside Jack with Sam and Daniel sitting down on the opposite of the table. Jack put down his cup reluctantly,  
  
"What's up?" he asked wearily.  
  
"We wanted to know if you were interested in going off base with us to a new restaurant that's just opened." Daniel asked, wiping his glasses with the bottom of his shirt as he spoke.  
  
"Thanks Daniel but I don't think they let basket-cases out in public." Jack joked in a flat tone.  
  
"Sir, you need to get away from here, we asked General Hammond if it was alright and he said that you deserved it after all the hard work you've been doing." Sam explained, trying to brighten Jack's mood. He looked up from the table straight into Sam's eyes and was about to refuse but no matter how hard he tried he couldn't say no to those gorgeous twinkling blue eyes.  
  
"Oh alright." Jack caved, draining the rest of his coffee. Sam smiled,  
  
"Well meet at the surface in 15 minutes." She affirmed to everyone at the table, standing from the table and jogging towards her room to get changed.  
  
TWO HOURS LATER.  
  
Once Jack had gotten away from the base his bad mood almost instantly lifted. The restaurant they drove to ended up to be a Steak House where Jack proceeded to have one of the biggest steaks any of them had seen. Sam, Daniel and Teal'c all watched on in awe as Jack ate every last bit of the meat and then took on a plate of fries afterwards. They had been sitting at the bar chatting for over an hour when Daniel began to yawn.  
  
"I got to go you guys, I've got to get some sleep, Teal'c, you coming?" Daniel offered him a ride back to base. Teal'c nodded,  
  
"Indeed." He replied, as they both walked out of the restaurant leaving Sam and Jack by themselves at the bar. Jack drained the remainder of his beer, placing the bottle back down on the bar heavily.  
  
"Just wanted to say thanks Major, for getting me out of there before I went completely insane." Jack commented.  
  
"No problem sir, anytime." Sam replied, feeling herself getting light headed from the Breezers she had been drinking. She tried to slide off her stool and stand but her legs gave way, she felt Jack catch her around the waist and pulled her back up to the stool.  
  
"Hey, hey, hey watch out, I still need you back at the SGC to get me out of this time loop." Jack joked, helping Sam back into a sitting position.  
  
"I'm sorry sir, I must've had too much to drink, I'll be fine." Sam convinced herself, trying to shake the dizzy feeling she had from her head. Jack took her hand,  
  
"In that case, let's get out of here, I'll drive to my cabin and you can sleep it off there." Jack insisted but Sam wouldn't back down.  
  
"You don't have to do that sir, I'll call a cab and go back to my house." Sam asserted as Jack helped her walk from the bar, holding her elbow for support, picking up her purse on the way out.  
  
"Nonsense Carter, I'll take you back to my place, that's an order." Jack stated firmly. Sam smiled audaciously,  
  
"Can't win a fight against me without making it an order can you?" She teased. Jack opened the passenger door and helped her into the seat. The drive to his cabin was silent as Sam fell asleep in the seat beside him. When he reached their destination, Jack carried the still sleeping Sam from the car and laid her down in his queen size bed, taking off her jacket carefully to avoid waking her and pulled the doona up to her shoulders for warmth. He sat on the bed beside her and watched for a moment as she slept, pushing away the strand of hair that had fallen into her eyes. He sighed deeply,  
  
"One day Sam, one day." He whispered tenderly, leaning down and kissing her on the cheek softly. She stirred slightly at Jack's touch, mumbling his name in her sleep. He smiled and silently snuck away from the room and headed for his office, he had to start organising how he was going to go through the Stargate in the next loop without being caught.  
  
P6Z 435 0951  
  
Sam was crouched behind a line of shrubs that grew from the harsh sand of the desert. She shifted her body weight and peered through the branches. A large Goa'uld ship was sitting on the surface of the planet, about thirty or so Jaffa stood at strategic defensive positions around the vessel. Lines of chained prisoners could be seen shuffling towards a series of caves on the western side of the ship with picks in hand, Jaffa with whips keeping them in line. Others could be seen carrying heavy sacks of material, what seemed to be Naquadah from the mines towards the ship.  
  
"Sam? Sam? You there?" A voice came over her radio. Sam jumped slightly at the voice, quickly scanning the area around her to make sure that she hadn't been spotted.  
  
"Yeah Daniel what's up?" Sam asked whispering.  
  
"What's going on up there?" Daniel inquired, it was clear he had already become bored with sitting in the cave by himself.  
  
"I've found a Goa'uld ship with around forty or so Jaffa, they have slaves mining the Naquadah for them." Sam reported.  
  
"Any indication who it is?" Daniel queried.  
  
"No, but I'm going to get a closer look b-" Sam's voice suddenly cut out as she was hit from behind with a zatgun.  
  
"Sam? Sam? Sam, are you all right? Sam!" Daniel yelled his radio but all he could hear was static. Two Jaffa guards picked up her motionless body from the ground and began to carry her towards the ship.  
  
THE NEXT DAY JACK'S CABIN 0716  
  
The first rays of the morning sun crept in through the window stirring Sam from her peaceful sleep. She opened her eyes and instantly tensed up when she realised she wasn't in her own bed. Sitting up slowly, she held her head in her hands; it was aching from the night before. Her hand came to her cheek as she felt a tingling sensation on her skin.  
  
"Weird." She mumbled, stroking the spot as if to wipe away whatever was there. As she glanced around the room she saw her CO's keys and wallet sitting on the bedside table and her leather jacket draped over the chair in the corner of the room. Pushing back the doona, Sam made her way out of Jack's bedroom quickly; the smell of bacon and eggs filled the house beckoning Sam towards the kitchen where Jack was flipping eggs in his frying pan, whistling contently to himself. Jack heard footsteps entering his kitchen he looked up and smiled,  
  
"Good morning Major, sleep well?" he asked cheerfully, taking in all Sam's features from her dishevelled hair to her sleepy, baby blue eyes. She rubbed the sleep from her eyes before she replied,  
  
"Good morning sir, surprisingly well considering." She replied, trying desperately to make herself look presentable in front of him, pulling at her hair and clothes in a bid to make them sit the way she wanted them to. Jack smiled to himself as he watched her,  
  
"Considering what?" he queried, the butter in the pan sizzling as he flipped the bacon while he spoke. Finally after a few minutes Sam gave up on her hair, besides Jack had seen her with worse hair than this.  
  
"Oh, it just usually whenever I don't sleep in my bed at home I usually end up staying awake all night." She responded, not giving the question a second thought. Jack couldn't help but smile,  
  
"Maybe it's trying to tell you something Major." He remarked, keeping his head down to avoid her shocked expression. Sam's head snapped up at hearing Jack's comment.  
  
"Excuse me sir?" she asked, as if she hadn't heard what he said but she really had. Jack went over to a cupboard on the other side of the kitchen and pulled out two plates, carrying them back over to the breakfast bar and placing eggs and bacon evenly on each one.  
  
"Nothing Carter, but I do need your help." Jack said, diverting the conversation away from his spontaneous remark. He slid a plate over to Sam with a knife and fork in tow. Sam eyes him suspiciously but then dismissed it.  
  
"With what sir?" She asked as calmly as possible, her nerves slightly unravelled.  
  
"Plans I've been making for the next time loop, how I'm going to get through the Stargate without being caught and court marshalled, how I'm going to steal a Goa'uld ship without being caught and killed, maybe not in that particular order but hey." Jack rambled on, sitting down beside her to eat.  
  
"Well, what have you gotten so far?" Sam asked curiously. For the next two and a half hours Sam and Jack worked on his plan, refining the little details to make sure everything went smoothly to avoid anything going wrong. A diversion had been created with Janet being elected the patsy for the whole thing; Sam guaranteed Jack that Janet would do it, once they explained the whole situation to her. Jack yawned for what seemed like the thousandth time that two-hour period. Sam looked up from the paper she was working and shook her head at him.  
  
"You didn't get any sleep last night did you?" She asked in a demanding, motherly tone. Jack wiped his eyes as if to wipe the fatigue away.  
  
"How could I? Someone was sleeping in my bed." He commented teasingly with a real Three Bears theme to his reply. Sam smiled,  
  
"I said I would catch a cab back to my place, it was your decision." She reminded him. Jack sighed deeply,  
  
"No, I liked having someone else here besides just me, it gets lonely you know." He admitted. She looked at him sympathetically.  
  
"It must be." Sam replied, trying to comfort him, placing her hand on his shoulder.  
  
"You should go and get some sleep, I can finish this off for you." Sam offered. Jack smiled wearily, looking at his watch as he had so many times in the past few days.  
  
"No, the loop begins again in 8 minutes time and then I'll find myself in bed back at the SGC being woken up by you knocking at my door telling me about the soil sample from that planet where you are trapped without food or water." Jack described sullenly, his sudden feeling helplessness suddenly flowed from him like a river after driving rain. Sam's heart broke seeing him so upset and vulnerable. Her hand transferred from his shoulder, tentatively moving to rest on his hand, Jack glanced up at her, immediately becoming lost in Sam's sparkling, caring blue eyes and reassuring smile. It instantly lifted his spirits, just to have her there with him, someone to talk to for once. Suddenly the beeping of the alarm on his watch interrupted their seemingly perfect moment, something always did. The alarm reminded Jack he only had a minute until the time loop began again and he sighed at it, wanting time to be frozen for just a few minutes longer so that he could enjoy it. Sam looked down slightly embarrassed.  
  
"What does the alarm mean?" she asked softly, not wanting to spoil the real emotion of the moment.  
  
"I have one minute until the time loop begins again." Jack grumbled. Sam suddenly made a decision that would change the way Jack would relate to her in the future but it was something she had been dying to do for so long. In the heat of the moment she leaned in slowly and kissed him. Jack jumped at the unexpected touch but did not pull away, letting it continue until the blinding, white flash consumed the scene, leaving the moment to the past.  
  
**************************************************************************** ****************************** 


	4. The Patsy enabling escape

Thank you for being so patient, I'm just relieved that I have not received any angry reviews telling me to move it along.  
  
I wanted to take my time with this chapter (and the chapter of my other two stories) because I feel that you as readers deserve the best story I can write, not some crap I made up off the top of my head without any real thought.  
  
I hope this meets your high expectations.  
  
O'NeillRoxMyWorld  
  
CHEYENNE MOUNTAIN COMPLEX SGC 0530  
  
"Red Alert! Red Alert! Code Red! Code Red! Evacuate all personnel! I repeat evacuate all personnel!" Docter Fraser's anxious voice could be heard over the bases' PA system. General Hammond immediately dropped his files and along with hundreds of others, and made their way towards the surface as quickly as possible. SF's ran down the hallways gathering all personnel and escorting them to the stairwells all except for four lone figures that stayed hidden in one of the emergency hatches. When the sound of footsteps died away Jack pushed open the hatch door and climbed out, with Sam, Teal'c and Daniel close behind. Both Daniel and Sam had been briefly filled in about the whole time loop situation, as usual Sam had wanted to ask a million questions but she was strictly told there wasn't time.  
  
"Alright, Carter, get up to the Gate room and dial the planet, make sure you get the co ordinates to P6Z 435, Teal'c, Daniel you're with me, Armoury." He ordered. Sam headed in the opposite direction to the rest of the team. It only took a matter of moments before Jack, Teal'c and Daniel reached the infirmary, grabbing as many zat guns, staff weapons, C4 and P 90's and they could carry along with a small, silver ball. Jack loaded a cartridge into the P 90 clipped to his vest and held it up symbolically.  
  
"Let's go kick some Goa'uld butt!" He exclaimed. Daniel could help smirking, rolling his eyes before picking up his bag and leaving Jack and Teal'c behind. Jack turned and watched Daniel walk away,  
  
"It was just a joke." He grumbled, turning to Teal'c for support on the issue who just looked off with an amused grin on his face, following Daniel out into the hallway. The reached the Stargate Control Room just as Sam had began dialling.  
  
"Unauthorised Gate Activation! Unauthorised Gate Activation!" The speakers screamed all over the base. Jack jogged up the stairs with his hands symbolically over his ears.  
  
"Can you stop that?!" He yelled. Sam fingers moved effortlessly over the keyboard and a few seconds later the alarms stopped. Jack walked over to Sam handing her a P 90 and C4 for the mission.  
  
"Hammond will be onto us soon so make sure you lock that thing tight." He ordered. Sam nodded,  
  
"Yes sir." She replied, her eyes fixed on the computer screen watching the dialling process.  
  
"Chevron 4 locked!" Sam reported over the microphone, the door the Gate Room slid open, the rest of SG1 taking their positions in front of the Stargate, pulling on their protective suits and gas masks, waiting anxiously for it to complete the dialling sequence.  
  
ON THE SURFACE.  
  
"Unauthorised Gate Activation? What the hell is going on?!" General Hammond shouted, hearing the alarms from inside. The rest of SGC personnel stood at the entrance to the facility whispering to each other in a frenzy of questions, Janet standing beside him, her hands clenched in front of her, silently praying that Sam's plan would work. A man approached the General with a clipboard.  
  
"General Hammond, all personnel accounted for except for SG1 sir." He reported. A frown came to the General's face, turning to address Janet.  
  
"Do you want to tell me why we are out here Docter?" he asked through clenched teeth. She turned and faced him, her face as white as a ghost.  
  
"Well sir." she began, her hands twisting nervously. It finally dawned on him what was happening,  
  
"SF's! Get in there and detain SG1! And shut down the gate!" General Hammond bellowed over the crowd. A small group of armed soldiers left the large group and ran towards the entrance. General Hammond turned back to Janet,  
  
"There better be a good explanation for this Docter or you will be following SG1 to a court marshal!" he threatened, before turning, pushing his way through the crowd in pursuit of the SF's that had already entered the base.  
  
P6Z 435 1101  
  
Daniel collapsed onto a large rock in exhaustion; it had taken him over an hour to reach the edge of the dense forest with his badly injured leg. He adjusted his glasses that continue to slip off the bridge of his nose from the sweat dripping down his forehead. Grabbing his pair of specially made binoculars with his eye prescription built in, his flicked his glasses to his forehead and peered down at the compound in the valley. He saw a large number of Jaffa guarding the Goa'uld compound and lines of struggling slaves just had Sam had described before their communication lines were cut off.  
  
"So much for mounting a rescue." Daniel mumbled to himself. He looked once again through the binoculars and focused on one of the Jaffa guards, adjusting the focus for a closer look at his face. A distinctive black symbol had been tattooed on his forehead, looking to be the head of some kind of bird  
  
"Falcon the symbol of Horus. Well at least we know who we are dealing with, sort of." Daniel forehead creased in worry as he continued to survey the area surrounding the compound hoping to find a weakness in their defence.  
  
GOA'ULD MOTHERSHIP GUEST QUARTERS SAME TIME  
  
Sam cringed, waking from her sleep with one very large headache and pain all over her body.  
  
"Zat gun." She grumbled, identifying the weapon used against her, being well accustomed to feeling of being shot by one in her many missions involving the Goa'uld. Sam rubbed her neck as she attempted to sit up, shaking it to get rid of the consequential dizziness; she examined her surroundings in surprise. She was lying in a giant bed, lavishly decorated gold and black coloured linen, on the dark black walls of the spacious room sat vivid pictures of falcons and of a Goa'uld looking out at her sternly with a face of pure evil. Artefacts mounted on columns were positioned strategically around the room, some appeared to be parchments, written records while others seemed to be sorts of technology from other worlds. Rugs of what looked to be cotton covered the floor, each in unique colours and patterns. Sam looked down panicky but let out a sigh of relief when she found that she was still wearing her usual khakis. Pushing back the linen that had been pulled over her body, she stepped off the bed and walked slowly towards the door of the room, opening it slowly and glanced briefly out of the room. A brilliant wall of blue, similar to the Stargate covered the exit. Sam quickly shut the door again,  
  
"Ok, well looks like I won't be getting out that way." She commented to herself, recognising the Goa'uld force shield preventing her escape, knowing full well from previous experience that she would be electrocuted if she touched the rippling, semi transparent wall. Sam looked around at the walls looking for another way out when a gust of air came from above her. She looked up and saw a ventilation shaft leading up out of the room. Sam ran over to the bed, standing cautiously on the wooden bed frame, pushing herself up to reach the vent. Suddenly the door to the room flew open, causing Sam to freeze on the spot. A figure entered the room with a flash of his black cloak whipping around with the movement of his body.  
  
"Please do not attempt to escape, I have given you the best of care, giving you this fabulous room to live, and this is my thank you?" The man queried in the unmistakable raspy Goa'uld tone, making his voice sound as if he was hurt by her actions. Sam looked down at the man in the room with her and dropped her arms. It was the same person in the photos on the walls; he was tall, well built man with dark tanned skin and dark, jet-black hair. Strong green eyes stared back at her but his face showed an eerie expression of kindness. The Goa'uld reminded Sam a lot of Apophis, at least his physical appearance.  
  
"I'm sorry if I'm not eternally grateful but being imprisoned on a Goa'uld mothership isn't my idea of a good time, thank you." She responded with clear sarcasm and resentment.  
  
"I saved you from the slavery of mining the Naquadah, you would have surely suffered very much until you died from the excruciatingly hard labour." He reminded her, his green eyes piercing hers, but again not in the usual evil, dominate manner that she was usually greeted with. Sam could quite make it out but there was something very different about the way this Goa'uld looked and treated her. She jumped down off the bed, wiping the sweat from her palms over the legs of her pants.  
  
"Why did you bring me here instead of send me to work in the mines?" she asked curiously, she had had the experience before, the Goa'uld rarely ever showed empathy or leniency on intruders. He smiled as he began to walk across the room slowly towards her, his black cloak swaying behind him.  
  
"Because I have chosen you." He replied simply as if no further explanation was needed. Sam eyebrows raised,  
  
"Chosen me for what?" she enquired, becoming even more confused and frightened by the god's behaviour. When the man reached within a metre of her, he reached out his hand and placed it on her cheek softly, Sam pulled away instantly, a frown covering her face, becoming more worried as to the man's motives.  
  
"I have chosen you, to be my new Queen." He informed her gleefully. Sam's eyebrows raised in alarm, her mouth dropped open in surprise.  
  
"Me?" she managed to choke out. The man waved his arm over her face suggestively.  
  
"You have unsurpassed beauty, such beauty that I have never experienced before in all my travels. You also show elevated intelligence, many times I have brought others here and all have suffered at the hands of the barrier that I placed in front of the door, you did not." He observed.  
  
"Well when you have been electrocuted by one before you tend not to want to repeat it." She commented sarcastically before continuing.  
  
"But there is no way I'm going to agree to be your Queen." Sam laid down the law upfront to avoid any confusion between them. He let out a long tsking sound as he proceeded to circle her, examining here every feature closely.  
  
"You have no say in the matter, I have made my choice, ever since I saw your face you have stirred me in a way I have in the past only dared to dream about." He mused thoughtfully, expressing his feelings freely and openly to Sam's astonishment, his empathetic behaviour was sending chills of fear down her back, making her body physically shiver under his keen eye. In that moment she wished that Jack would burst through the door, say some typical Jack O'Neill one liner, shoot the god down with his P 90 and take her away from this living nightmare back to Earth. But she knew it wouldn't happen that way, Daniel and Sam had been stuck on this planet for over a week already with no sign of a rescue team. She had to face the dim reality that she would never see Earth, never see her friends, never see her family, never see HIM again. Sam realised she never took the opportunity to tell Jack how she really felt, all the years of hiding her feelings to avoid getting them both thrown out of the Air Force had been trying and painful and now she would never be able to say what she had wanted to for so many years. Her thoughts and regrets soon translated to the expression on her face, disappointment, helplessness and grief showing through, her usually radiant skin turned a sickly white colour. Sam's blue eyes that always seemed to sparkle, dimmed into what seemed to be nothingness, as if her soul had been taken from her body and now she was nothing but a large grouping of biological cells, going through the processes of life mechanically. The man saw the sudden change in the woman's expression,  
  
"Hundreds of woman have pleaded to let them be my Queen, many of them would kill to be standing where you are at this moment, you are very fortunate." He told her as if to make her feel privileged to be imprisoned.  
  
"How about I kill you and we'll call it square?" Sam replied bitterly, in a low, flat tone. He stopped in front of her, smirking to himself as again he reached out to touch her face. Sam reacted quickly, her arm knocking his hand away from her face defensively. The Goa'uld eye flashed angrily but he did not physically lash out at her.  
  
"Do not worry, in time you will grow accustomed to being my Queen, you will never want to be anywhere else but with me." He advised her in a slightly more menacing tone.  
  
CHEYENNE MOUNTAIN COMPLEX SGC 0541  
  
"Chevron 7 locked!" Sam spoke through the microphone, seconds later the familiar blue explosion came from the Stargate. Sam immediately typed in the code to lock the Stargate Controls and ran down the stairs to the Gate Room, clutching the computer printout in her hand. The door slid open and she spotted the rest of her team already in their gas suits ready to go through.  
  
"Sir, I have to co ordinates to the planet, the controls are locked, it will take them at 20 minutes to break the code and access the computer." She reported, pulling her legs through the protective suit hurriedly.  
  
"Good, ok campers, listen up, when we get on the other side we proceed directly to the nearest cargo ship, hijack it, and fly away without getting ourselves killed? Got it?" Jack made the shortest briefing they had ever been in; making sure everyone was right with the plan. By this time Sam had managed to pull her suit on and all three of them nodded in agreement at the plan.  
  
"SG1, Colonel O'Neill stop right there, where the hell do you think you are going!" General Hammond yelled breathlessly down the microphone to the SG1. Jack could hear footsteps outside the Gate Room door; reacting quickly he took a Zat Gun and shot at the door's controls, electrocuting the control panel to preventing anyone from opening the door.  
  
"I'm sorry sir, can't do that." Jack called back. Lieutenant Dover was at the Stargate Controls beside General Hammond desperately trying to override the firewall Sam had thrown up to prevent the Stargate being shut down.  
  
"General, they've locked the controls to the Stargate sir, I can't shut it down." he reported frenetically. Jack, Sam, Daniel and Teal'c pulled their gas masks over their heads, ignoring the alarms that had begun to blare and General Hammond's obvious fury about the situation. Daniel threw the small sphere they had taken from the Armoury towards the blue of the Stargate; small pop could be heard as it passed through the permeable wall.  
  
"If you go through that Gate I'll have you Court Marshalled!" Hammond threatened, in a vain attempt to stop them from going through.  
  
"Alright, SG1, move out." Jack called ignoring General Hammond's threat. Daniel, Teal'c and Sam, with their weapons at the ready walked up the ramp as ordered, disappearing through the barrier without a second thought of disobeying a direct order. Jack turned to face the General above him in the Control Room.  
  
"If we don't go Daniel and Sam are going to die on that planet, sorry General." Jack rebutted, turning without another word, following his team through the Stargate to the planet. Hammond just stood silence, repeating Jack's last words to himself.  
  
"Dr Jackson and Major Carter were right there." He spoke out loud to himself, very confused and bewildered by Jack's unusual behaviour.  
  
TBC  
  
Thoughts? Comments? Constructive Criticism?  
  
I know everyone says this but I mean this all your reviews really do inspire me to keep writing, knowing that people are actually reading my work.  
  
THANK YOU FOR ALL OF YOUR REVIEWS SO FAR, THEY HAVE BEEN SO EXTREMELY HELPFUL (ALL YOUR SPELLING CORRECTIONS WERE GOD SENDS THANK YOU) AND SO VERY KIND. 


	5. All Quiet on the Goauld Planet

All Goa'uld language depicted in this story is purely made up by me, please do not email me saying that it's wrong because I have no idea how to say it really so you'll have to bear with my excruciating knock off. Oh and any technical or defensive actions involving cargo ships and gliders are also not fact. THANK YOU  
  
P4M 576 0446  
  
When Jack jumped from the Stargate the first thing he noticed were the great number of Jaffa that lay on the ground in front of him motionless. Teal'c, Daniel and Sam were standing in defensive positions around the Stargate with their weapons at the ready, Sam with her P 90, Daniel with a zat gun and Teal'c with his always preferred, staff weapon.  
  
"Carter, are we right?" Jack asked, referring to being able to take their suits off without becoming victims to the poisonous gas they had thrown through the gate. Sam pulled the meter from her pack and circled the surrounding area taking readings.  
  
"Yes sir, the gas has cleared." Her voice muffled by the apparatus in front of her face. Daniel pulled of his mask gratefully; glad to feel the cool breeze on his face. The rest of SG1 disposed of their suits, revealing their normal "battle" khakis underneath. Jack pulled his lucky hat over his forehead.  
  
"Alright, Teal'c and Daniel, head east, if you find anything give a shout. Carter you're with me, we'll take the west." Jack divide his team in two as usual to cover more ground, they would be able to find the nearest ship quicker if they split up. Clutching his P 90 in his hand defensively, they took off towards the surrounding forest area, Sam walking close behind him. She always felt secure near him, and on a highly populated planet of Goa'uld that was definitely a good feeling to have. They trudged through the dense underbrush of the area, Jack slicing through the thick vines that grew across their path. It had been over half an hour and Sam was surprisingly beginning to become bored.  
  
"So, sir what else have you done in the time loops?" she asked casually, her interest had piqued when she was told they were in another loop but never had the audacity to ask him about it.  
  
"Oh nothing much, you know, same old, same old, predict this, break that, you know the usual." Jack lamented not taking his eyes off where he was going. Sam smiled,  
  
"Are you sure sir, I mean you could have done, anything without worrying about the regulations or consequences?" She reminded him. Jack stopped mid chop and turned to face her.  
  
"You are beginning to sound like Daniel, Major, it's not a good thing." He told her, jokingly.  
  
"Sorry sir, I'll try harder not to sir." She promised, not able to stop herself from smiling. Jack ducked his head, feeling a blush coming on as he saw that beautiful smile, memories from his previous loops coming to the forefront of his thoughts.  
  
"Good, let's press on shall we?" He suggested, turning back towards the plant wall that was blocking their path. As Jack went back to chopping through the dense underbrush Daniel's voice came over the radio.  
  
"Jack, come in." Daniel whispered, indicating he was in a potentially vulnerable position.  
  
"Go ahead Daniel." Jack replied, hoping for good news, looking at his watch self-consciously. Since the time loop began he seemed to be looking at it more than he had in his entire lifetime.  
  
"Teal'c and I have found a cargo ship, it's guarded by a couple of Jaffa." Daniel reported, the ship only a few feet away from their current position.  
  
"Alright, stay put, Carter and I will be there ASAP. O'Neill out." Jack ended the transmission.  
  
It took Jack and Sam only 20 minutes to jog to Daniel and Teal'c's position. They were crouched behind a line of waist-high shrubs on the edge of the forest. Jack and Sam immediately lay down in the long grass beside them. Through the shrubs they could see a group of seven Jaffa pacing defensively around the craft, each holding a staff weapon in their hands ready, their eyes wandering around the area searching for any signs of intruders. Jack shifted his body weight onto his elbows, positioning his P 90 directly in front of his eyes to get the best shot.  
  
"Alright, nothing fancy, let's do this." He ordered, whispering. Jack pointed to Sam, and then out to two of the Jaffa on the far left of their position, she nodded, sliding silently further away from the group to get into a better firing position. Next Jack pointed to Teal'c and then out to the Jaffa closest to him, Teal'c nodded in agreement and moved into position, holding his staff weapon at is side. Daniel pulled out the zat gun and held it up symbolically, showing Jack he was ready. Jack nodded, pointing to two of the Jaffa, assigning them for Daniel to take care of. It left Jack with only the two Jaffa that stood directly in front of him. SG1 moved into position, Jack looked down the line to make sure they were ready, holding his hand up; he counted down on his fingers, 3, 2, 1. Suddenly they sprang up from their positions, taking the guards by surprised. With ease, both Jack and Sam fired 6 rounds from their weapons, taking down two guards each. Daniel fired two quick shots at the two guards in front of him, ducking to narrowly avoid a staff blast that flew by his head. Teal'c only took one shot from his staff weapon to take the remaining Jaffa down. They stepped into the clearing where the Jaffa lay motionless, each of them scanning the area cautiously to check that there were no more guards waiting nearby. After a couple of minutes, Jack lowered his weapon, satisfied they were alone, the rest of SG1 doing the same.  
  
"All right campers, let's get going, Carter get those co ordinates into the computer, Teal'c you take the helm." Jack ordered. Daniel, Sam and Teal'c all went over to the smallish cargo ship. The door slid open and they each stepped inside, Jack brought up the rear, walking backwards towards the craft slowly keeping an eye out just in case any nasty surprises came running from the forest. When they were all inside Teal'c took his position in front of the crafts controls while Sam pulled the paper out of her pockets, her fingers running furiously over the controls as she programmed the co ordinates for P6Z 435. Jack run into the main room and slapped Teal'c on the back,  
  
"Teal'c, get us outta here." He requested, a small amount of urgency presenting his voice. Teal'c nodded, reaching for the controls. The engines began to fire only seconds later, the craft lifting off from the planet's surface. Jack smiled to himself,  
  
"All right!" he exclaimed, happy that at least one thing was going right for him today. But down below on the planets surface on of the Jaffa guards opened his eyes, clutching his stomach where the projectile had hit his body. As he sat up he saw the ship he was protecting begin to fly away from sight. He slowly and painfully reached for his communicator; a gruff voice on the other end of the line answered his call.  
  
"Kree! Sholatika! Sholatika! Kalertiu!" He said, reporting to the major military base on the planet that intruders had stolen a spacecraft from his current position.  
  
P6Z 435 HORUS' MOTHERSHIP 1244  
  
Sam stood with her arms out to the side while three servant women insisted on dressing her in the finest clothes, fit for a queen. They wrapped black material with gold trim around the top of her body, crossing over in front of her chest to maximise the showing of her cleavage. Over her hips, they first placed a knee length skirt of gold coloured silk and was then covered with a very thin, black skirt the fell to the floor. As the servants chatted excitedly among themselves, Sam stood perfectly still; her pale, drawn face remained unchanged throughout the whole exercise. For the final touches she was given flat sandals to wear and a gold tiara with a falcon symbol engraved onto it, a long train of black material falling from the tiara down Sam's back. When they had finished, the servants stood back from Sam and looked at their work. They all nodded in satisfaction, rushing over to Sam and pulling her towards her door.  
  
"Where are we going?" Sam asked, startled slightly by the sudden rush. One of the girls leaned over and whispered into Sam's ear.  
  
"You are to be married now." She told her, giggling excitedly with the rest of the girls as they pushed Sam out of her room and down the corridor towards her husband. Horus was waiting eagerly in the main dining hall for his soon-to-be Queen.  
  
P4M 576 0543  
  
"Carter, you got those co ordinates into that computer yet?" Jack asked, pacing across the control room floor, thoroughly annoying Daniel who was standing behind him.  
  
"Almost sir." Sam inputted the last code into the terminal and the co ordinates flashed back to her on the screen.  
  
"Done." She reported. Jack sighed,  
  
"Excellent Major." She applauded her. Sam smiled, she always liked when he complimented her on a job well done, she knew although through all her lengthy briefings and explanations of technologies to which she was usually greeted with a "move it along Major" he did appreciate and respect how much she worked. Teal'c was still at the ship's controls when a sudden blast sent the ship rolling to the left; Sam, Jack and Daniel's legs were thrown from under them as they slid along the floor of the craft, slamming into the wall. Jack groaned as pulled himself back onto his feet, his head throbbing from the impact against the unforgiving metal.  
  
"What the hell was that?" he cried out, helping up Sam and Daniel from the floor while maintaining his own balance as the ship again tilted violently to one side.  
  
"It seems that we are being pursued by a number of Gliders, O'Neill." Teal'c reported. Jack made his way over to where Teal'c was sitting and was looking over his shoulder.  
  
"How many are we talkin'?" he asked nervously. The screen in front of Teal'c showed pages of Goa'uld that Jack could not read. Teal'c read the data carefully before answering,  
  
"There seem to be three moving towards our current position, I suggest that you all find seating at once, Major Carter I will require your assistance." Teal'c recommended, taking control of the situation as another blast flew ever so close to hitting the small ship. Jack and Daniel stumbled over to the two chairs that sat behind the helm, Sam falling into the co pilot's chair, she immediately began to run a whole systems diagnostic.  
  
"They've taken out the shield generator sir, we are completely vulnerable." Sam reported.  
  
"Teal'c can you shake 'em?" Jack raised the question, they had come so far, he wasn't about to get turned into Goa'uld fish food when he was so close to saving his friends.  
  
"I believe so O'Neill." Teal'c replied confidently, as the ship sped further towards the planet's atmosphere. They continued to fly around the planet's atmosphere, the ship spiralling in all directions in an attempt to lose their pursuers but after 10 minutes or so Teal'c was no more successful in eluding them. Suddenly another blast hit the back of the cargo ship causing sparks to fly from the ceiling, showering them. Sam looked back at the computer screen,  
  
"Weapons have just been disabled!" She yelled over the sound of sparks and crushing metal around them. Jack decided to take charge,  
  
"Teal'c, give me a go." Jack stood up and immediately swapped places with his Jaffa teammate, grabbing the controls he felt an instantly surge of adrenalin flood his body.  
  
"Alright, let's lose these puppies." Jack shouted, pushing back on the controls and sending the ship into an immediate dive towards the surface of the planet. At what felt like light speed the ship hurtled towards the ground, the Gliders following close behind. Sam looked over at Jack, terrified and saw the sheer concentration on his face. Just as the ship seemed to be on a collision course with the surface of the planet, Jack wrenched back on the controls, causing the ship to flip backwards and fly back up into the atmosphere. Explosions could be heard behind them as two of the Gliders smashed into unforgiving terrain, causing a pillar of fire and smoke to rise into the air.  
  
"That's two sir, we still have one on our tail." Sam informed him, a hint of exhilaration in her voice.  
  
"Carter, if I was to hit a Glider and I had only one chance, where would be the place to do it to inflict maximum damage?" Jack asked her, not taking his eyes off where he was going for a second. The ship flew out of the planet's atmosphere and headed deep into the blackness of space. Daniel looked up from where he had been focussing on the floor of the ship with a look of surprise on his face. Sam turned her head at looked at her CO in shock; neither of them could remember when they had heard such a technically coherent sentence come out of Colonel Jonathan O'Neill's mouth. When he didn't receive an answer, Jack looked over at her with a confused expression, still flying the craft through the air at top speed, swerving randomly to avoid the Gliders fire.  
  
"What?!" He asked, not knowing why she was staring at him with a completely blank face when they were in the middle of a life or death situation. Sam snapped out of her momentary state of shock, and smiled to herself.  
  
"Nothing sir, the main engine systems are located in the central area of the ship underneath the rear wings." She recalled from her many briefings with the Colonel about the X 302 and it's capabilities against Death Gliders. Jack was lost in thought for a moment, a plan starting to take shape in his mind, after only seconds a smile crawled to his face as he turned back to the window where he had to swerve to narrowly avoid a blast from behind.  
  
"Okay kiddies, hold onto you diapers!" he exclaimed as he readied himself for a manoeuvre he had never tried before. Daniel looked over at Sam, his eyes silently asking her if she knew what Jack was going to do. Sam shook her head quickly, pulling herself further back into her chair in readiness for anything Jack might do. Following Sam's lead, Teal'c and Daniel did the same; Daniel leaned his head back and closed his eyes in a vain attempt to hopefully keep down the muffin he had eaten before they left. Jack took a deep breath before beginning to slow the ship down. Feeling the sudden deceleration, Sam looked over at him, alarmed.  
  
'Sir?!"  
  
"Trust me Major." Jack replied mockingly, not taking his eyes of the screen in front of him for a second. He stared at the tiny image of the Glider on the screen in front of him drawing ever so close towards his position.  
  
"Showtime, 3, 2, 1." He mumbled before he completely stopped the ship dead in its tracks, floated in mid air without moving. The whoosh of the Glider's engines scraped the top of the craft as it narrowly avoided ploughing into them. Jack, seeing the Glider in front slow down made his decisive move, grabbing the controls and immediately thrusting the ship forward on a direct collision course with the rear of the Glider. Sam and Teal'c shut their eyes, turning their faces away, unable to look at Jack sending their ship ploughing into another. As the two crafts clashed, the scraping of metal against metal let out an ear-piercing screech as the Glider in front of them began to explode, the engine catching on fire as flames engulfed the whole craft. Jack began to reverse away from the crash scene and all he could do was watch as the enemy craft began to drift slowly down on a collision course with the planet's moon.  
  
"Woo! Always wanted to try that!" Jack exclaimed happily. Sam opened her eyes slightly, seeing the Glider falling from the sky, she opened her eyes fully and watched intently as it closer and closer towards the moon. Even from their position, Jack and Sam could see the twisted metal of the craft collided with the surface of the moon, a cloud of space dust flying into the air around the moon. A bright light suddenly flashed in front of Jack's eyes and when it disappeared he looked over and saw that Sam was longer beside him. He looked back quickly to where Daniel was cowering but his seat too was empty. Jack let out a sigh of relief when he saw that Teal'c was still sitting in the same position. Teal'c opened his eyes slowly and looked around in confusion.  
  
"Carter? Daniel?" Jack called fruitlessly; he knew they were no longer on the ship. Teal'c titled his head to the side as a thought came to mind.  
  
"O'Neill, did Major Carter not say that this time loop was caused by a planetary body that interrupted the connection to P6Z 435?" Teal'c recounted. Jack nodded,  
  
"So?" Teal'c smiled to himself,  
  
"The impact of the crash may have caused the moon to shift, thereby causing the time loop to be disabled." Teal'c hypothesised. Jack sat deep in thought for a moment, processing the idea. No more time loop, no more constantly repeating days, but it also meant no more stolen moments with Sam, moments that would remain with him forever.  
  
"Yeah." Jack replied with sadness in his voice. Teal'c, hearing the sadness in his voice looked over at Jack curiously.  
  
"You do not wish the time loop to end O'Neill?" he asked, confused by Jack's sudden change of heart. Jack closed his eyes and for a second relived the highlights of the time loop. Seeing Sam's face when he proposed to her, throwing Twinkies through the Stargate, that unforgettable kiss they shared at his cabin. Jack smiled to himself but quickly pulled himself back to reality, he was a Colonel and she was Major, those memories were for him, and him alone. Putting on his "Colonel" face he turned to face his friend.  
  
"Oh yeah definitely. Let's go get Carter and Daniel and go home." He suggested, letting Teal'c take back control of the ship for the long trip ahead of them, collapsing into one of the seats behind the helm, as the remnants of their time in the loop slowly began to fade away from his mind.  
  
P6Z 435 1244  
  
It took them nearly 5 hours before they reached P6Z 435; Jack had dozed off 10 minutes into the flight, leaving Teal'c to amuse himself with a song he use to sing to Ry'ac as a baby. As Teal'c landed the ship onto the surface of the planet, the sudden bump of the ship hitting the ground caused Jack to jolt from his very pleasant dream, sitting up dazily, rubbing his eyes.  
  
"We have arrived on the planet O'Neill." Teal'c reported, making the final adjustments to ship settings before grabbing his pack from the floor and making his way out of the ship onto the sandy terrain, the Stargate could just be seen far in the distance, in the shadow of the setting sun. Jack shivered as he was greeted by the black, coldness of night on the eerily silent planet. Jack scratched his head thoughtfully.  
  
"Okay Teal'c we may as well hole up here for the night, at sunrise we'll start off and find Daniel and Carter." Jack decided. Teal'c nodded in agreement, as the cold wind began to sweep across the low lying desert area Jack and Teal'c proceeded back into the ship, closing the hatch behind them. Jack had offered to take the first shift in keeping watch; Teal'c had gone to Kelnoreem until his watch in three hours time. Jack sat in the pilot's chair gazing out to the sky where millions of stars shone brilliantly through the blackness of space.  
  
"Please be all right Sam, hang on for me, I'm coming." He whispered to himself as a shooting star streaked across the sky in front of him.  
  
CAVES SAME TIME  
  
Daniel rubbed his hands together as he inched his body closer towards the small fire he had managed to start. On the planet the days were boiling hot but the nights were the worst. The temperature dropped alarmingly low in a very short time, Daniel could feel every inch of his body freezing, all the clothes he had brought with him were now on his body and he still shivered uncontrollably. All day he had spent on the edge of the forest area, studying the area around Horus' ship for any sign of Sam amongst the hundreds of slaves the Goa'uld had working for him. As night fell Daniel had no choice but to make the painful and slow journey back to the caves for the night, his burn on his leg had become infected and was healing ever so slowly. As he pulled his body into his sleeping bag he crossed his arms over his chest and laid his head on what use to be his pack but was now his makeshift pillow.  
  
"Please god, I hope Sam is safe, I hope we get out of this alive." He prayed before closing his eyes and drifting off to sleep.  
  
SAM'S QUARTERS HORUS' MOTHERSHIP SAME TIME  
  
Sam laid her head on the fluffy pillows that sat at the head of her new bed. The tears that rolled down her cheeks soon created a large wet patch on the fine silk fabric under her head. This was how life was going to be, she was married to a Goa'uld System Lord, forced to love someone that she despised for who and what they are. What made her heart ache was the extreme loneliness she felt, the vulnerability of living anywhere else but back home, to her little house in Colorado where she could just be herself and not have to worry what others may think of her. She missed them all so much, Janet, Cassie, Daniel, Teal'c, General Hammond but most of all she missed him. His little one liners that always made her smile, that cheeky grin that he saved only for her, his big, round brown eyes that were the windows to his soul. She even missed the times when he would come into her lab when she was working and ending up fiddling and breaking everything he touched. She shivered from the cold that came through the vent above the bed; she pulled the covers up to her chin and snuggled down further for warmth. As another wave of tears escaped from her eyes she closed her eyes and prayed silently to herself.  
  
Dear God,  
  
Please, please let me see him just one more time to tell him how much I miss him and love him. I have been too scared before now to reveal my feelings because of the regulations but I cannot go on living without letting him know how much I care about him and if he still cares about me. My heart breaks every second my brain reminds me that I will never see him again. Please let me see him, if it can only be for a minute, it would be a minute that I would treasure and never forget for the rest of my life.  
  
Amen.  
  
TBC  
  
Corny I know but I did think I should leave it on that heartfelt moment.  
  
Push the little blue button down there and tell me what you think.  
  
O'NeillRoxMyWorld  
  
P.S. The next chapter will most probably be the last so. yeah (trying not to cry) 


	6. Aftermath

Sorry it took so long to write this chapter, I very grateful thank you for not sending me any hate mail.  
  
Okay so I told a little white lie, this is NOT the FINAL chapter. When I sat down and actually planned out the rest of the story, I realised I had so much more to write than one chapter could accommodate. Sorry about that.  
  
I have references to the episodes "48 Hours" and "Proven Ground", both episodes I just recently bought on video and have watched at least 50 times in the space of a week (sad I know).  
  
In "Proven Ground", Lieutenant Grogan was one of the trainees (along with Lieutenant Elliot, Captain Hailey and Lieutenant Satterfield); he was known by Colonel O'Neill as a "fine target, he's good at getting shot." (Yes that is a quote.)  
  
**************************************************************************** ******************************  
  
CHEYENNE MOUNTAIN SGC 1744  
  
General Hammond was pacing the floor of his office. Feelings of anger, disbelief and worry continued to circle around him like the eye of a tornado sweeping him towards a court marshal for some of his best officers. It had taken many hours to restore the SGC to normal working order and he was the one that needed to answer for it. A knock came at his office door; stopping mid stride the General took a deep breath to calm down before returning to the chair behind his desk. Pushing the confidential files in front of him aside he asked the visitor to enter. When the door opened Dr Fraiser, looking slightly afraid, entered the room and stood rigidly in front of him, awaiting her inevitable punishment for being involved with SG1's unauthorised trip through the Stargate. At the time, when Jack and Teal'c had told her about Daniel and Sam being trapped off world the consequences of helping them by falsifying a medical emergency were far from her mind. But in hindsight, as always, they were very real and could end her career in the Stargate program.  
  
"Have a seat doctor." General Hammond offered, but his tone said to Janet that it wasn't optional. Sinking down into the usually comfortable chair, Janet's hands were clasped together anxiously. The General sighed deeply before he began.  
  
"Now that the base has returned to normal working order I would like to know what in God's name happened this morning?" He demanded, his voice rose far beyond the normal talking level. Janet mentally cringed under General Hammond's angered expression.  
  
"Well sir." she began. "Colonel O'Neill approached me earlier this morning and informed me that we are experiencing another time loop where the day repeats itself. Also that Sam and Daniel are trapped off world with a limited amount of supplies. He needed my help in creating a distraction so the SG1 could go through the Stargate and save them." Janet explained. For a moment General Hammond sat there looking at the docter in complete confusion.  
  
"Major Carter and Docter Jackson are on another planet? Docter, I saw them both in the Gate Room, both officers went through the Gate before Colonel O'Neill." He insisted, believing his knew what he had seen only hours before. His voice had lowered, making Janet feel more at ease.  
  
"Yes sir, from what I could gather from Colonel O'Neill the start of the time loop began when SG1 were going on a scheduled mission. Sam and Daniel went through the Stargate first but when both Teal'c and Colonel O'Neill attempted to Gate to the planet, they were pushed back into the SGC. Now since the day began all over again, Sam and Daniel had not yet gone through the Stargate to the planet, that being the reason both of them were here." Janet clarified, not totally understanding herself what was going on, but simply reiterating what the Colonel and Teal'c had told her. General Hammond shook his head in confusion and frustration.  
  
"Why didn't Colonel O'Neill ask for the authorisation to go through the Gate to rescue Major Carter and Docter Jackson? I would have no objections in allowing SG1 to go through the Gate." The General replied, his top team's increasingly puzzling behaviour was becoming a large headache. Janet nodded in partial agreement.  
  
"I asked the Colonel and he said that the connection to the planet that Sam and Daniel are currently stranded on was cut off. Their plan involved gating to one of the surrounding planets and borrowing a ship to fly to the planet to save both of them. From what I could gather the planet they were going to had a large presence of Goa'uld. Teal'c said that in a previous loop they had asked your permission but you denied them authorisation." General Hammond leaned back in his chair; his 2IC's uncharacteristic behaviour was beginning to make sense. He could not willingly endanger the lives of any of his officers, sending a team to a planet controlled by the enemy would be leading the cattle to slaughter. He rubbed his temple as he saw the docter waiting for her sentence. He had to make a decision but the new developments that had just come to his attention had changed his mind about what to do.  
  
"Docter, I'm ordering you to take leave until SG1 returns and this matter can be adequately resolved." General Hammond ordered. Janet let out a loud sigh of relief, she thanked the General and made her way towards the door of his office, but stopped before she reached it, turning back to address him.  
  
"Sir, I just wanted to say that I have no regrets in doing what I did, I did and still do believe it was the right thing to do." Janet expressed her feelings on the situation, quickly exiting the room in case the General changed his mind.  
  
P6Z 435 0528  
  
The early morning rays of the sun peeked over the sands dunes of the alien planet where the members of the infamous SG1 began to stir from their fitful sleep. Jack opened his eyes, shaking away the nightmare that had plagued his dreams; he stood up slowly, his bad knee cracking to relieve the tension of being in the same position for hours. Putting his gear back on and grabbing his P90, Jack made his way out to the cockpit where Teal'c sat, ever vigilant for the possibility of an approaching enemy.  
  
"Hey Teal'c, let's get going and find Daniel and Carter." Jack suggested. Teal'c bowed his head,  
  
"Indeed." Standing from his seat, clutching his staff weapon in his hand. Teal'c led the way out of the ship and into the blazing hot sun, the desert terrain giving way slightly under the two men's feet. Jack pulled his cap further down his forehead and pushed his sunglasses onto his face to protect his dark, chocolate brown eyes. Teal'c scanned the area that surrounded them, in three directions they were met with desert as far as the eye could see, to the north the lush green of a thick forest expanded on both sides, widening as if to reclaim some of the desert around it.  
  
"O'Neill I believe it wise that Daniel Jackson and Major Carter be taking shelter from the heat." Jack nodded in agreement,  
  
"Yeah, let's take a look around those trees, see if we can get anything on our radios."  
  
CAVES SAME TIME  
  
The sound of birds chirping greeted the morning. As Daniel rolled over, still half asleep, his head slipped from his pillow to the very hard rock underneath.  
  
"Ow." He grumbled, sitting up n his sleeping bag. Fumbling on the ground in the semi darkness of the cave, he grabbed his glasses out of the dirt and pressed them onto the bridge of his nose with his index finger. Pushing himself onto his arms, he pulled his whole body backwards towards the cave wall, freeing his legs from his sleeping bag. Where he had been hit by a shot from the Glider days before, his makeshift dressing was stretched and covered in dirt, the wound underneath receiving no protection from infection and subsequently no relief from the pain. Shuffling his way slowly over to where the fire had been burning the night before, Daniel reached for the last piece of fruit he had been able to collect. Turning it around in his hand he studied it like a tablet covered in writings used by the Ancients thousands of years before.  
  
"Daniel, Carter respond." Jack's muffled voice split the stony silence of the dreary cave. Daniel snapped his head his head towards the sound, holding his breath in waiting, hoping his mind, after being stranded on a strange planet all this time, wasn't just making him hear things.  
  
"Daniel, Carter respond." Jack voice came again through the radio. Daniel scrambled as fast as he could over to his pack and reached the radio excitedly.  
  
"Jack, Jack is that you?" Daniel asked, his voice cracking with a mixture of happiness and relief.  
  
"Daniel, you alright? Where are you?" Jack enquired, a hint of relief in his voice also. Daniel ley out a huge sigh of relief, he had nearly begun to lose all hope that someone would come and to take him away from the hell he had endured.  
  
"Ah, I'm in some caves, in the middle of the forest." Daniel clarified briefly, not knowing how else to explain where he was.  
  
"Alright get out to the entrance, Teal'c and I are to close to your position, O'Neill out." A combination of happiness and adrenalin suddenly gave Daniel the energy that the gruelling days of having little food and water had taken away. Pulling himself over to the cave wall, ignoring his muscles crying out in pain, Daniel pulled himself up onto his right leg. Packing up his gear as best he could, he hobbled out of the cave and into the dense tropical environment of the forest.  
  
HORUS' MOTHERSHIP SAME TIME  
  
The mirror reflected the emotions of a tortured soul, a pair of lifeless eyes stared back at her, the dazzling blue had been overshadowed by a sickly grey that had begun to tint her skin from it's usually healthy, peach glow. Adjusting the tiara in her hair, Sam felt a single tear run down her cheek. Wiping the tear away gently with the back of her trembling hand, she took a deep, steadying breath and straightened her head and shoulders, determined not to let Horus have the satisfaction of seeing her in so much grief. Sam walked out of her room and down the long hallway of the mothership. Memories of missions came flooding back from the past, the sounds of gunfire rang in Sam's ears, the voices of her team members filled the void between waves of zat blasts and the emptying of rounds of bullets. At the end of a hallway, the powerful Goa'uld system lord waited in anticipation for his Queen to join him for breakfast. As Sam came around the corner towards him, Horus felt a surge of pride as the woman dressed in a stunning gold dress approached him.  
  
"My Queen, I trust you slept well and are refreshed and ready for your first official day as Queen of such a magnificent empire." Horus greeted her, offering her his hand to take. Sam smiled as best she could. Reluctantly placing her hand in his, Horus led her into the grand dining room where a long table was covered in plates of delicious food prepared especially for her and her husband. Sam felt a pang of guilt as she took her seat at the table. She had more food than she could possibly eat sitting in front of her waiting to be devoured while Daniel, one of her closest and dearest friends was in a cave somewhere slowly starving to death.  
  
FOREST 0549  
  
Jack and Teal'c made their way further into the forest,  
  
"Daniel!" Jack yelled, hoping to follow Daniel's voice and pinpoint his location. Teal'c looked around with his usual look of distain on his face.  
  
"Jack! I'm over here!" A distant but easily recognisable voice came from just in front of them. Jack took off towards the voice; he jogged through the trees and soon after broke through into a clearing where he saw Daniel sitting on the ground with his back against a large rock.  
  
"Hey Danny boy, glad to see ya!" Jack smiled, walking over to him casually; not wanting to give the impression that he actually missed the little Space monkey. Daniel didn't look good; Jack could see his leg had been badly injured. His face had thinned out considerably and his eyes had become a sickly white colour and sunken into his face. His cheekbones were abnormally prominent. His glasses were cracked and covered in dirt. Daniel looked up and smiled wearily.  
  
"Hey Jack, what took you so long?" Daniel asked in a croaky voice, his eyes half closed from exhaustion. Jack sat down on the rock, handing him the water flask. Daniel took it gratefully, emptying it in one mouthful. Teal'c stepped into the clearing and bowed his head respectfully when he saw Daniel.  
  
"It is good to see you are well Daniel Jackson." Teal'c smiled of those very rare real smiles that the usually straight-faced Jaffa did not disclose.  
  
"Thanks Teal'c." Daniel replied, handing the empty flask back to Jack who was busy taking a good look at Daniel's wound.  
  
"What happened?" he nodded towards Daniel's left leg.  
  
"We set up camp in front of the Stargate but a Glider attacked us, Sam avoided getting hit, I wasn't so lucky." Daniel joked. Daniel mentioning Sam made Jack realise that she was not with him.  
  
"Where is Carter anyway?" Jack asked casually, reaching into his first aid kit and pulling out the necessary tools to redress Daniel's burn. Daniel shook his head in dismay, ducking his head before replying.  
  
"Ah.I don't know exactly." Daniel answered, trying to dodge the proverbial bullet that Jack had fired at him. Jack stopped what he was doing and turned around slowly to face Daniel. He had a stunned look on his face but when he attempted to speak his mouth moved but no sound came out, at first.  
  
"E-Excuse me?" Jack stuttered, not quite understanding what Daniel was saying. Rubbing his forehead to relieve the build of tension, Daniel attempted to explain what had happened.  
  
"After the Gliders attacked Sam and I found this cave. Sam went off to find the Goa'uld base; she was on the outskirts of the camp when our radio contact was cut off. I went to see if I could find her but I couldn't see her among the slaves mining the Naquadah. I'm sorry Jack" Daniel apologised, feeling he was the one to blame for letting Sam go off by herself. Jack's head dropped to his chest, covering his face with his hand he sighed loudly. By this time all of them had assumed the Sam was being held by the Goa'uld in charge of the whole operation and from their experience, it couldn't be a pleasant time for her. Jack needed to do something about getting Sam out of there, and he needed to do it now.  
  
"Do we know anything about this Goa'uld guy?" Jack asked as if the energy had been drained from his body also.  
  
"I recognised the symbol on one of the Jaffa's foreheads, it was of the falcon god, Horus." Daniel recalled. Teal'c's head turned slightly as he recognised the name.  
  
"Horus has just recently joined the Goa'uld System Lords in their attempt to construct a Naquadah powered weapon with the capability to destroy all the world's that oppose them." Teal'c informed Jack and Daniel, he had spoken to Bra'tac only a few days before. After hearing this Jack made an impulsive decision, standing up quickly, he swung his P90 over his right shoulder, pulling his pack onto the other.  
  
"Teal'c, you help Daniel back to the ship and take off, I'm going after Carter." Jack ordered in his official Colonel-to-team tone.  
  
"O'Neill, would it not be wise for me to assist you in finding Major Carter?" Teal'c asked.  
  
"Just take Daniel and get to the ship, I'm going alone." Jack's voice raised a level higher than normal. He shot a glare of defiance towards both of them, daring either one to question his decision. Daniel shook his head in frustration, he knew Jack was being unreasonable and reckless but what he couldn't determine was why this time was different to any other. There had been other times when an enemy had taken Sam, or any of them captive, but Jack had never acted this way before, they had always gone in as a team. Teal'c, after a few moments of contemplation, nodded indicating he would follow Jack's orders.  
  
"Daniel, how far away is the camp?" Jack enquired. It was a way to make sure Daniel was going to let him go with a proverbial pat on the back and a friendly good luck. Pointing behind him Daniel replied.  
  
"It's about 5 miles from here." Jack nodded gratefully, a smile small coming to his face as a silent thank you. Soon Jack had disappeared down the path he had taken previously, leaving Teal'c to help Daniel with his wounded leg before making their way back to the ship as they were ordered.  
  
HALF AN HOUR LATER.  
  
Walking determinedly towards his destination, Colonel Jonathan O'Neill, United States Air Force was heading into a highly volatile situation and was ready to do whatever was necessary to rescue the most important woman in his life. After the events of the previous days Jack needed to make sure Sam was safe and that everything would return to normal. Of course there was General Hammond's threatened court marshal that he couldn't forget about. Light began to filter through the leaves in front of him as Jack stepped closer towards the edge of the woods. Looking out of the trees suspiciously, Jack raised his gun and side stepped cautiously over to take cover behind a tree. Peeking out from behind, Jack could see a sand dune just in front of him, sounds of metal against rock echoed from the ridge behind it. Spotting a small group of small shrubs at the top of the dune, Jack scanned the area in front of him for Jaffa patrols. Seeing none in sight, he ducked down and took off running towards the shrubs. Reaching the top of the sand hill Jack threw himself into a forward roll to keep himself low but still moving; he came to rest just in front of the line of shrubs. Jack pulled out his binoculars, parting the branches he gazed down into the valley below. The large, all too familiar shape of a Goa'uld mother ship sat on the far side of the large-scale camp. In the shadow of the great vessel, lines of heavily chained prisoners with picks in their hands shuffled despairingly between the caves on the far left of the site and a small depositing station to the right. Searching the area, Jack counted upwards of 40 armed Jaffa Guards in strategic defensive positions around the camp; he could only estimate how many others were inside the ship.  
  
"Well I think we can rule out going in full bore, guns blazing." Jack muttered to himself. Taking a long look at each individual prisoner, Jack sighed with some relief and some despair, Sam wasn't being tortured by being forced to mine Naquadah but didn't bring Jack any reassurance that Sam was still alive. Turning away, Jack sat with his back to the camp contemplating what he next move should be. With the amount of Jaffa behind him there was a very slim chance that if he started a firefight he'd get out alive. Trying to sneak in without a distraction wouldn't be a viable solution either but Jack was running out of options, he was so used to having the rest of his team to back him up but now SG1's commanding officer was on his own. He only had one option, get captured, Find Carter and fight their way out.  
  
HORUS' MOTHERSHIP 0631  
  
"My lord, an unauthorised cargo ship has been seen landing on the planet's surface." The first prime reported to Horus. The Goa'uld was sitting pompously on his throne, his hands resting on the armrest to emphasise his power over his people.  
  
"Take a group of Jaffa and secure the ship, make sure you dispose with any. unwelcome visitors." Horus ordered, a sly, evil smile covering his face. The Jaffa bowed obediently and left to immediate carry out his lord's wishes.  
  
DESERT 0643  
  
Daniel had his left arm around Teal'c's broad shoulders, using him as a crutch as they made their way slowly back to the ship. He still could not shake the confusion at Jack's unusual behaviour.  
  
"Hey Teal'c, did anything.unusual happen back home." Daniel asked, hoping to gain information as an explanation for what had happened.  
  
"We experienced another time loop Daniel Jackson." Teal'c answered abruptly. From his answer, Daniel got the feeling that Teal'c didn't want to discuss it further so he did not push with the hundreds of questions that suddenly came to mind. The two men stumbled to the top of a small hill just on the outskirts of the forest area; below them the small cargo ship sat in waiting. Daniel stepped with his good right leg to continue walking but Teal'c remained still, causing Daniel to fall forwards and almost lose his balance completely. The Jaffa was looking out to the left of their position with an expression of extreme concentration. He remained completely still as to avoid making any unnecessary noise. Teal'c could hear and sense a group of Jaffa coming closer towards them.  
  
"A group of soldiers approach, most likely to secure the vessel. We must move quickly to avoid being captured." Teal'c said, taking off at a lightning down the sandy hill, dragging Daniel behind him.  
  
"Wh-What? Teal'c!" Daniel yelled after his friend, now being forced to hop on one foot in order to keep. After only a few minutes they slid to the bottom of the incline. Suddenly a blast hitting the ground to their left sent sand in every direction. Teal'c and Daniel looked up in alarm and saw six Jaffa running down the hill towards them, another six were kneeled at the top of the hill, their staff weapons raised at the ready. Energy blasts continued to follow closely behind as the two sprinted into the relative safety of the ship. When they entered the ship, Teal'c took off towards the ship's controls while Daniel stood at the door, grabbing a zat gun; he fought off waves of Jaffa attempting to enter, narrowly dodging the staff blasts aimed directly at him. The door slid closed as the ship jolted from the planet's surface. Daniel hobbled towards the front of the ship, collapsing into the chair beside Teal'c. Through the window they could see Jaffa shooting directly at them as if the barrier wasn't there. With a burst of energy from the ship's engines, they flew out of the planet's atmosphere, leaving the Jaffa on the ground and Jack and Sam to get home on their own.  
  
NAQUADAH MINING CAMP SAME TIME  
  
The prisoner's had begun to move slower than what was acceptable, if they were to reach their quota for the day they would have to move twice as fast.  
  
"You will worker faster, or you will die!" The supervisor bellowed, his announcement was accompanied by the cracking of whips from his fellow Jaffa, the screams of pain echoed eerily throughout the valley. Jack was crouched in a crevice just beside where the supervisor stood and watched over his very own production line. As the prisoners shuffled past, Jack could see their faces, legs and arms covered in dirt, with bruises and blood from the frequent whippings they received. A younger Jaffa walked up to the supervisor; he bowed before addressing his superior.  
  
"Kalta, my lord Horus wishes to advise you that he and his new queen requests to meet with you immediately." The messenger reported. Jack's ear pricked as he heard the words "new queen", his heart skipped three beats as he imagined Sam being forced to marry the Goa'uld. But it could also be a random coincidence and Sam is being held in a cell on the lower levels of the ship, Jack knew he couldn't jump to conclusions; but his gut was telling him that it was Sam that Jaffa was referring to.  
  
"I will go immediately." He replied, the messenger bowed and quickly walked away.  
  
"And you can take me with you." A voice came from behind the supervisor. He whipped around to see who was speaking to him and he saw a human standing before him, a primitive weapon pointed directly at him. Backing away slowly the Goa'uld kept his eyes on the gun, as Jack continued to step closer towards him. The supervisor glanced over the human's shoulder and saw three of his men coming up behind him. In a matter of seconds, Jack felt the head of a staff weapon jab into his back; he raised his arms above his head in complete co-operation, he afford to go getting himself shot. A Jaffa behind him grabbed the P90 from his hand, pulling his arms behind him and secured them with chains. Jack did not resist, his facial expression remained one of complete calmness and control. The supervisor, after Jack had finally been disarmed, stepped forward to face their prisoner, his mouth twisted into a snarl as he frowned at the lowly man. Swiftly Kalta kicked the prisoner in the stomach, Jack doubled over as he felt one of his ribs crack, collapsing to the ground in pain. His body's first reaction was to pull his arm over his chest for protection; he tugged at the chains that bound him with no success.  
  
"I will take him to face Horus, be on your guard for any others that maybe in the area." Kalta ordered, roughly pulling Jack to his feet by grabbing at his left shoulder. The Jaffa pushed Jack in front of him, forcing him to lead the way towards the ship, Kalta's staff weapon never too far away from being aimed at the back of Jack's head.  
  
CHEYENNE MOUNTAIN SGC 0651  
  
General Hammond sat in the briefing room with three members of SG9; Lieutenant Grogan had been shot in the left arm and was in the infirmary receiving medical attention.  
  
"From what Captain Gellard could decipher, the tablet contained the Goa'uld Anubis' record of the planet's history dating back about 4000 years. As we were exiting the temple we were attacked by a fleet of gliders, we immediately booked for the Stargate, Lieutenant Grogan was providing cover fire; one of the blasts must have hit him before he jumped through the Gate." Colonel Drabol reported to his Commanding Officer. General Hammond nodded, satisfied with the brief.  
  
"Captain Gellard, continue with the translation. You have a mission in three days to P8J 376. Dismissed." He reminded them, the three officers stood and left the briefing room as an SF entered with a message for General Hammond.  
  
"General sir, Colonel Simmons is waiting in your office." The General turned in his chair and looked at the SF confused.  
  
"Who lieutenant?" he asked.  
  
'Colonel Simmons sir, he says it's urgent." The SF clarified. General Hammond sighed, whenever Colonel Simmons visited the SGC he always managed to cause problems to the program or his people. His target was usually Colonel O'Neill and SG1 who have a dark history with the Colonel. Leaving the briefing room, he walked into his office, a tall man with short, dark, curly hair leant against his bookcase, his eyes scanning the books that sat on the shelves as if he was enthralled by the titles.  
  
"You have quite a collection here General." Simmons commented, hearing footsteps entering the room.  
  
"To what do I owe this pleasure Colonel?" Hammond replied dryly, taking his seat behind his desk, asserting authority over the situation. Simmons paused and gave the General a look of innocence.  
  
"General, I am only here on the behalf of the Pentagon." He held up his hands as if General Hammond was aiming a gun at him.  
  
"And what exactly has the Pentagon sent you here to tell me?" General Hammond demanded, wanting the good Colonel to deliver the message and leave as soon as possible. Colonel Simmons crossed over to the chair in front of the General's desk and sat down, readjusting his navy blue blazer as he spoke.  
  
"The Pentagon has heard about yesterday's incident involving Colonel O'Neill and the members of SG1. A number of individuals have expressed deep concern about Colonel O'Neill's total disregard for the regulations of which are essential to the continuation of the Stargate Program. Taking into account Colonel O'Neill's previous actions, they have ordered that on the Colonel's return, he be immediately removed from the Stargate Program and receive a dishonourable discharge from the Air Force, without benefits." Simmons detailed, a small but very present smile appeared on the Colonel's face, he was enjoying bringing the news in person. General Hammond lent forward onto his desk.  
  
"They sent a convicted traitor of the United States to deliver this order?" He enquired out of interest. Colonel Simmons had been arrested when Colonel O'Neill, with the help of an old friend in Colonel Maybourne, found evidence that Simmons was helping an escaped Goa'uld. Simmons shook his head at the General,  
  
"I have paid for my indiscretions General." He defended himself, standing from his chair and moving towards the door.  
  
"I only hope Colonel O'Neill can do the same." He added slyly, before he closed the door behind himself, ending the conversation. General Hammond immediately picked up the receiver on the fire-red coloured phone that sat on his desk; the Presidential Line, he had a few select questions for President Lynch.  
  
TBC  
  
This chapter was originally much longer but I thought I'd give your poor eyes a rest. The next chapter will be coming very soon.  
  
As always. watch this space.  
  
O'NeillRoxMyWorld 


	7. Confrontation

HORUS' MOTHERSHIP SAME TIME  
  
The king and queen sat in their royal thrones; servants constantly circled, obeying every demand that was asked of them. Horus had one of the women hand-feeding him; each grape was followed by a series of giggling from each of them. Sam slumped down further into the tall, gold throne that belonged to her. Today the servants had dressed her in a fitted, gold, backless dress. Again the top half draped dangerously low in the front making Sam very uncomfortable, she longed for her black leather jacket to throw over the top of the revealing outfit. The tiara remained poised on top of her head, the symbol of her allegiance to her husband, Horus.  
  
"Your blending will be performed earlier this evening, I have found you a worthy Goa'uld in which you can share your body." Horus enlightened Sam, taking a short break from being hand fed. She shuddered at the thought of being inhabited by a Goa'uld again. Before she could answer him, the door to the throne room slid open and a Jaffa Guard entered, bowed before the king and queen before speaking.  
  
"Kalta has arrived as you have requested my lord." He informed them. Horus waved his hand flippedly, indicating that the guard was to proceed. The System Lord turned to Sam,  
  
"Retrieve the crown from my quarters, I am inspecting the mining operation later in the day." He demanded. Sam smiled fakily, and nodded obediently, as she always did when he addressed her, stepping down from her chair and exiting via the "back door".  
  
"Enter." Horus called to supervisor waiting outside the room. The door slid open and Jack stumbled into the Throne Room, Kalta walking close behind him with his staff weapon still positioned only an inch away from Jack's body. The god stepped down from his royal throne; his cape swaying behind him as he walked into the centre of the room. His judging eyes never left Jack's, studying him like an insect that he would thoroughly enjoyed squashing. The supervisor jabbed Jack in the back with the end of the staff weapon, pushing him further into the centre of the room, forcing him to turn and face Horus. Jack pulled at his chains in a vain attempt to find a weakness; he caught the glance of the Goa'uld staring at him pretentiously. Meeting his stare he decided to open the channel of conversation.  
  
"Horus right? Luke Skywalker, I got separated from my droid, R2D2, small, shiny fellow, beeps a lot." Jack said, his voice dripping with sarcasm. Kalta swung the staff weapon brutally into the back of Jack's legs, the prisoner cried out in pain as he landed heavily on his knees.  
  
"Kalta, release the prisoner from his chains and leave." Horus ordered sternly, not taking his eyes off Jack. Kalta bowed unquestioningly, unlocking the chains and leaving the two men alone in the room. Jack looked up from the ground to meet the god's eyes; there was no way he was going to bow before the false god and be submissive towards him. He had not seen Sam yet, which again gave him the mixed feelings of relief and worry. Horus took a several steps forward before he spoke.  
  
"O'Neill of the Tauri yes?" He acknowledged the prisoner's identity.  
  
"Nice to have a fan." Jack replied flatly.  
  
"Your exploits are well known among all Goa'uld System Lords, it will give me great pleasure to be the one to end your life. I will become well respected within the System Lords for capturing the leader of the group that has killed many a Goa'uld in the past." Horus anticipated, a smile of glee coming to his face at the thought of torturing and killing his prisoner. Horus stalked closer towards Jack; his arm disappeared behind his cloak making Jack strain to see what Horus was reaching for. Slowly, the Goa'uld pulled out a hand device, slipping it onto his arm and hand, each finger slipping into its correct slot. Jack cringed at the sight of the device, being all too intimate with the pain it could inflict. Seeing Jack's discomfort only fuelled Horus' growing feeling of power over the mere human, his mouth twisting into an evil grin, his eyes flashed dangerously as he stepped closer towards Jack. Jack tried to stand in a bid to get as far away from Horus as possible but the hit he had taken to the legs had partially dislocated his knee, he could feel it. Raising his hand out towards the prisoner, the device began to glow; a ray of distorted light extending from Horus' hand hit Jack in the middle of his forehead. Jack collapsed back down to the floor as he felt a sudden burst of unbearable pain strike him down; it felt like a drill being forced through his skull on it's way to make scrambled eggs of his brain, and if he didn't stop soon, it would.  
  
Sam had the crown in her hand and was walking back towards the throne room, as she neared the door, cries of pain could be heard coming from inside. She instantly stopped mid step and listened, when the cry came again only seconds later Sam instantly recognised the voice. She hit the button on the wall frantically and the door slid open. Sam stood in horror as she saw the beam from a Goa'uld hand device hitting Jack who was collapsing backwards under the immense pain. Following the line of the beam she saw Horus on the other end, a malicious smile covered his face, his eyes flashed as he pushed his arm out further towards Jack in a bid to inflict more excruciating pain.  
  
"Stop it!" she yelled, the crown fell from her hands as she ran over to Jack, dropping to her knees in front of him. Horus, startled by Sam's sudden intrusion, pulled his hand away hurriedly to avoid hitting her with the lethal weapon. Sam put her arms around Jack and pulled him towards her; supporting his back with her right arm she reached up and checked his pulse. Jack groaned loudly,  
  
"Eh God! I hate those things." He muttered, opening his eyes slowly. When he saw Sam kneeling in front of him, her concerned face only inches away, his face lit up like a Christmas tree in the middle of Madison Square Garden.  
  
"Carter, thank god you're alive," he whispered, in the heat of the moment he pulled her closer towards him, to feel her heart beating on his chest was an unexplainable feeling of raw emotion. An overwhelming sense of joy sent Sam gratefully into Jack's warm embrace, his powerful arms around her gave her the security she had been longing and praying for since she had been take captive. A single tear rolled down her face as she closed her eyes and silently thanked whoever had been listening to her prayers. Reluctantly Jack pulled away from Sam, checking to make sure she wasn't injured.  
  
"Are you alright?" He asked concerned, his hands rested gently on either side of her face. Sam smiled and nodded, Jack could see the stunning sparkling blue in her eyes through the tears of happiness that had begun to form, he wiped them away tenderly from her cheeks.  
  
"What is the meaning of this!? You belong to me!" Horus roared, infuriated by her obvious affection towards the prisoner. Their "moment" interrupted, Jack and Sam were brought firmly back to reality. Sam stood from the ground; taking Jack's arm and pulling it around her neck, she helped him to his feet; the hand device had momentarily drained so much of his energy that he could barely stand. Sam turned to face the Goa'uld, bravely.  
  
"I belong to no one." She declared firmly, pulling the tiara from her hair and throwing at Horus' feet. The god straightened his body rigidly, as if to retrieve the pride he had just lost through that single act of Sam's.  
  
"Is this why you dare show your face? To challenge me for the hand of my queen?" Horus asked Jack directly, becoming angrier. He glanced at Sam out of the corner of his eye; she was staring at him with an expression of curiosity, waiting for his response. A smile covered Jack's face; his cheeks began to turn pink in embarrassment.  
  
"Yep." He replied frankly. Sam inhaled sharply in astonishment; she didn't know how to react. Jack was going to fight a Goa'uld even with a significant physical disadvantage, for her. Horus chest swelled with pride, his adrenalin levels began to rise as his challenge was met.  
  
"So be it. It will be a fight to the death, no weapons." Horus laid out the rules, taking off the hand device and throwing to the ground a few feet away. Jack nodded in agreement, ignoring the agonizing pain from his knees and legs; he removed his arm from around Sam's neck and tentatively put his weight on both legs. Jack buckled slightly and was again supported by Sam, who had her arms around his chest.  
  
"You can't fight sir, you're very badly injured." Sam maintained, helping him back onto his feet. Jack grimaced,  
  
"It's only my knee, I've been worse." He reminded her. Sam shook her head,  
  
'Sir, you can't do this, in your condition he'll kill you." Sam acknowledged the painful truth of their situation. Jack had been subjected to a large amount of exposure from the Goa'uld hand device and added to it, the injury to his knee; his chances against a Goa'uld in perfect health were not good, they both knew it. Jack smiled to himself.  
  
""Can't" major? I don't believe that word appears in the English dictionary." Sam smiled briefly before she opened her mouth to argue with him but Jack cut her off before she could say a word.  
  
"Just promise me something." He mumbled, as if he didn't really want to say it.  
  
"Don't you dare say it, you're not going to die!" Sam yelled as tears stung her eyes, not tears of happiness this time, but tears of despair and sorrow. Jack rested his hand on her cheek, her tears rolling over it like it was part of her face.  
  
"Promise me you'll keep making fun of Daniel for me and take Teal'c to a baseball game, I've been promising to take him to one for ages." Jack joked, he never knew quite how to handle emotional confrontations and he had learnt to compensate for it with jokes and sarcasm. Sam smiled through her tears; he smiled back at her reassuringly.  
  
"Hey, that's the smile I like to see." He whispered softly. Turning away from Sam he looked towards Horus.  
  
"Let her go and I'll fight you." Jack stated definitely on the spur of the moment.  
  
"What? No!" Sam cried out in protest. Horus raised his hand to silence her. He stood still for a moment, thinking about Jack's demand. If the Goa'uld System Lords heard of him defeating the great O'Neill of SG1 without any weapons it would most surely secure his position among them but looking at the woman he was reluctant to release her, such a rare beauty, unlike any woman he had ever seen. His was torn between two great rewards.  
  
"So be it." Horus reluctantly agreed. Sam stared back at Jack in disbelief,  
  
"You can't, I won't leave here without you!" Sam vowed, the tears continuing to flow down her cheeks like a never-ending stream of pain.  
  
"Jaffa Kree!" Horus shouted, the door to the room slid open and the guard that had spoken to them only minutes before, entered.  
  
"My Lord." He addressed him, bowing before his god.  
  
"Kelra, take the queen to her quarters, gather her things then escort to the Chappai." Horus ordered without a second thought. A look of confusion spread over the Jaffa's face.  
  
"My lord?" he questioned, not understanding why Horus was asking this of him, his newly crowned Queen being sent through the Chappai before the blending.  
  
"Do what I say or you shall die!" Horus roared. The guard cowered slightly under the god's ferocity.  
  
"Yes my lord." He responded obediently. The guard walked over to where Sam stood, her arms still around Jack's chest.  
  
"I am not leaving without you." Sam whispered, gazing into his eyes.  
  
"Sam, just go." Jack murmured softly, unable to look into those beautiful eyes filled with tears of sorrow that cut through to the very heart of Jack O'Neill. It was the first time in a very long time he had called her "Sam"; a name he had only used a handful of times before and only in near life threatening circumstances. But Sam did not move, she couldn't will herself to let go of him. Jack could feel she wasn't going anywhere, summoning up all his courage he finally looked into her eyes once more.  
  
"Sam, please, just go." He pleaded with her, a tear inevitably slipping out from the corner of his eye; it was the only time Sam could remember seeing Jack cry, in that moment she realised how hard a decision this was for him. Horus was getting tired of Sam and Jack's lengthy goodbye; all he wanted was to have the pleasure of killing O'Neill of SG1.  
  
"Leave now or I will have you both killed!" He threatened, nodding at the guard the Jaffa raised his staff weapon and pointed at Jack and Sam, the weapon arming as the sound of electricity crackled through the mounting tension in the room. Sam closed her eyes and took a deep, calming breath, she analysed her situation. She had a staff weapon pointed at her back, Jack, injured in her arms ordering her to leave him behind and fight a Goa'uld System Lord with a physical disadvantage for her. She had only two options, stay with Jack and they would both be killed or go through the Stargate back home and leave Jack to fight Horus with a slim chance of him surviving. Her heart was telling her to stay but her head said to go, it was an internal struggle that was ripping Sam apart. She opened her eyes slowly and stared into Jack's deep brown eyes, she could see inner turmoil in his soul as well, a whirlwind of conflicting emotions spiralling towards her inevitable choice, stay or go. Sam pulled Jack closer her, Jack's silver hair brushing against her face and his head rested gently on her shoulder.  
  
"I'll go." Sam whispered in his ear. Jack tightened his arms around her in relief and gratitude, he realised it would probably be the last time he would ever see her.  
  
"Take care Sam, give my love to Cassie."  
  
"Goodbye Jack." Sam murmured, dropping her arms from around his chest she stepped away from him and immediately to face the exit, knowing if she looked back at him it would only make it harder for her to leave. Horus nodded at the guard; he lowered his staff weapon and led the way towards the door, Sam followed behind him and soon disappeared as the door slid closed behind her for what seemed like forever.  
  
"Goodbye Sam." Jack murmured to himself, he knew he needed to make abundantly clear to himself that he would probably never see her again if he was ever going to have a chance of living through a fight with a Goa'uld. Leaning heavily on his left leg Jack reached down to the knee on his right, he saw that it was still slightly dislocated from its usual resting place. Taking a deep breath, readying himself for the immense pain, he grasped his kneecap firmly between his hands and thrust it sideways back into its socket. Swallowing the urge to cry out, Jack held his knee still for a moment to make sure it stayed in place but he knew all too well that if the ligaments in his knee were torn as he suspected, the knee would not stay in that position long. Thinking quickly, Jack pulled of his jacket, ignoring the looks of indignation from Horus, pulled his under shirt over his head and began ripping into one long piece of material. Grasping his right leg firmly in one hand Jack took one end of the bandage and placed it under the material as he wound it around the top of his knee once. Crossing it over the right hand side of his knee, Jack guided it underneath his leg and then around to the front and across the left side of the knee, tying the two ends together to make a very makeshift splint. Standing up straight again, Jack attempted to placed weight on his bad leg, relieved to feel only minor pain. Jack finally looked at Horus with the most confident face he could manage under the circumstances.  
  
"Alright let do this thing." Jack declared, indicating his was ready to fight.  
  
Sam walked in gloomy silence while Kelra led her along the hallway towards the back of the ship, unable to get her mind away from thinking about Jack, her imagination on overdrive as she imagined Jack being severely beaten by the Goa'uld that had taken her captive. The guard turned left down a dark hallway only a few metres in length. Sam could see a door at the end with Goa'uld symbols inscribed in the metal; even with her knowledge of Goa'uld these symbols were foreign to her. When they reached the door the Jaffa pulled out a small, circular device, waving his hand over the red crystal in the centre, the door abruptly slid open. Sam raised her eyebrows in interest; she had never seen anything like it.  
  
*Maybe some sort of Goa'uld security device to avoid other Jaffa and visitors accessing whatever is inside* she thought to herself, intrigued at the technology.  
  
"Remain here." Kelra ordered her sternly, stepping through the doorway a light turned on above him and illuminated the contents of the room. Sam peered curiously inside; it was like a small version of the Armoury back at the SGC, a number of staff weapons and zat guns were stack against the back wall along with Goa'uld Ribbon Devices, Healing Devices and at the very front of the shelves, her BDU's and remote transmitter. Sam's head began to tick over as she realised what a discovery this was, a room full of Goa'uld weaponry as well as healing devices, it was the perfect opportunity to gather reinforcements. Kelra handed her belongings, then turned back and took a square shaped device that looked similar to Jack's Game boy from the bottom shelf. Sam could see the device had two small buttons indented into the metal, a single, distinctive symbol on each.  
  
"What is that?" she asked with enthusiasm and curiosity. The guard shot her a look of anger at her insolence.  
  
"It controls the platforms around the Stargate." He answered her briefly. Sam looked at him thoroughly confused; she had not seen any platforms when she and Daniel had come through from Earth.  
  
"Platforms?" she queried.  
  
"To avoid killed by the soil that surrounds the Stargate. The inhabitants of this planet before Horus conquered it had placed the soil in front of the Stargate to try and stop enemies from reaching their settlement. When they wished to use the Stargate they raised indestructive platforms consisting of Naquadah to access the Stargate safely." Kelra explained, pushing Sam back out of the entrance to the storage room and locking the door behind them. Once again leading Sam down the hallways of the mothership, they reached the Ring Transporter room. Two guards stood on either side of the ring platform; Kelra nodded towards the Jaffa standing at the Ring Controls, Sam noticed out of the corner of her eyes Kelra pressed one of the buttons on the controller in his hand. Stepping onto the platform, the rings dropped down from above them and a flash of light transported Sam and Kelra from the mothership, across the desert landscape of the planet to a similar platform right next to the Stargate. When the light had cleared Sam looked down at the raised area of Naquadah she was standing on.  
  
"Amazing." She whispered to herself, she knew Daniel would find it fascinating that the former inhabitants of the planet used such an ingenious method to protect themselves from unwelcomed visitors; they probably never even considered the enemy would come in great ships to enslave their people. Sam looked out around her and was surprised when she saw no patrols or Jaffa protecting the Stargate. Stepping of the Ring platform, the Jaffa guard marched directly to DHD, standing beside it with his staff weapon at his side.  
  
"Dial the co ordinates to your planet." He barked. Sam did what she was told; slowly entering the seven symbols of Earth into the DHD and soon the event horizon shot out from the Stargate and then retracted to form the blue, semi permeable wall they would pass through. Lifting up her wrist with the GTO transmitter on it Sam pointed it towards the Stargate, already formulating a plan of escape in her mind, Sam inputted an incorrect code. Kelra watched her carefully, trying to assess whether or not she was trying to deceive him but Sam kept a completely straight face the whole time.  
  
SGC  
  
"Unauthorised Off world Activation!" A voice came over the base speakers. General Hammond rushed into the Control Room from his office.  
  
"Have we got a signal?" he asked. The officer at the Stargate Controls looked at the computer screen.  
  
"Receiving a GTO signal..." he began, waiting for the identification of whoever was coming through the Stargate. Seconds later the Stargate beeped loudly.  
  
"It's an unknown signal sir." He reported. General Hammond nodded vehemently,  
  
"Keep the iris sealed." He ordered, airmen filled the embarkation room below as they waited to see if anything would come through.  
  
P6Z 435  
  
As Kelra stepped towards the Stargate to make sure the Queen went through, Sam made her move, kicking the Jaffa's legs from under him. As he fell to the ground, Sam snatched the staff weapon from his hand, charged the weapon and fired it, hitting the guard in the stomach causing him to cry out in pain. Shooting Kelra again in the stomach where his Goa'uld lay in the pouch, Sam watched as the Jaffa slowly died in front of her eyes. Moving quickly to avoid begin seen, Sam bent down and stole the door control to the supply closet she had seen previously and the controls to the Naquadah platforms. Dragging the guard towards the Stargate, Sam pushed him into the event horizon as a precaution to avoid anyone being alerted to her escape.  
  
SGC  
  
A thump could be heard as an object hit the pure titanium shield over the Stargate, moments later the bluish wall behind it vanished.  
  
"Wormhole disengaged." The officer replied. General Hammond sighed in relief.  
  
"Stand down." he ordered to the officers below. The General turned to return to his office before the officer at the computer stopped him.  
  
"Excuse me sir. The off world activation came from P6Z 435." He informed his superior officer, knowing it would be important to the General since that was where SG1 was allegedly on mission. Hammond looked up at the Stargate in concern, the thought of one of his people begin squashed and killed against the iris suddenly popped into his mind, making his heart sink in dread and uncertainty.  
  
P6Z 435  
  
The Ring Transporter inside the mothership activated, alerting the Jaffa to what they believed to be the return of Kelra from escorting the queen to the Chappai. They were taken aback when the rings retracted and they were met with a staff blast to the chest from Sam, falling to the ground dead just as Kelra had. Running stealthily down the hallways of the mothership, Sam dodged passing Jaffa patrols as she found her way back to the Supply Room. Closing the door behind her, Sam quickly changed into her BDU's, grateful for the khaki green material that covered her body much more than the gold dress had. Grabbing a zat gun, healing device and ribbon device, storing the ribbon device and healing device in her pockets Sam opened the supply room door cautiously, scanning the hallway in front of her before making her way back towards the throne room.  
  
Jack heard the sickening thud as his head slammed against the throne room wall. Shaking away the dizziness he saw Horus running closer towards him, his fist raised to strike him down again. Narrowly dodging the punch, Jack kneed Horus in the stomach, causing the Goa'uld to crouch over momentarily in pain. Taking the opportunity, Jack braced himself against the wall and thrusted his left knee into his opponents' head then kicked Horus in the stomach with unmatched force, sending him flying backwards and into a table covered in bowls of fruit, grapes and apples falling on the Goa'uld. Jack marched over as fast as his knee would allow to where Horus was lying on the ground with his eyes closed looking to be in great pain. Jack knew he had to take advantage of the Goa'uld on the ground, raising his right leg to kick Horus in head again, the System Lords' eyes suddenly snapped opened, his arms grabbing Jack's leg and swiftly twisting it to the right, causing Jack to be flipped onto his back, hitting the ground hard as the familiar pain shot up his leg from a new dislocation. Horus got to his feet and instantly placed his foot on Jack's neck, applying direct pressure to Jack's throat, a sneer growing on his face with the sheer enjoyment of the suffering of others. With his airways being cut off, Jack attempted to twist out from under Horus but as he did, the Goa'uld only pushed his foot further onto his victim's neck. Jack was quickly running out of oxygen, he could feel himself begin to pass out, his eyes fluttering closed as he lost consciousness.  
  
Sam ran into the throne room and saw Horus standing over Jack menacingly. Not taking a second thought Sam raised the Zat Gun, took aim at Horus, and shot him, hitting him squarely in the chest. The Goa'uld's body convulsed as the shock flowed through his body. Sam stepped closer, her eyes filled with hatred, she took another shot, and the Goa'uld System Lord fell to the floor motionless, his body sprawled against the wall like a rag doll that had been crudely discarded. Sam ran carefully across to where Jack was lying unconscious, keeping a close eye on Horus in case, by some miracle, he managed to survive being hit by two zat blasts. Reaching down Sam touched Jack's neck and was relieved when she felt a weak pulse, weak, but a pulse nonetheless. Hastily pulling the Healing Device from her pocket, Sam slipped it over the palm over her hand and positioned it over Jack's chest. Closing her eyes and focussing all her energy into the device, seconds later it began to glow as it rapidly began to restore Jack's health. After a minute her so, she heard Jack groan, dropping the Healing Device to her side she placed her hand on his neck and was now greeted with a steady pulse. Jack opened his eyes slowly, blinking several times he felt someone beside him and turn his head slightly to see Sam looking down at him.  
  
"Carter?" he croaked.  
  
"I'm here sir." Sam comforted him; she didn't even notice Jack had changed back to calling her "Carter" rather than "Sam".  
  
"What? Horus..." Jack began to ask. He thought he was dead; the last thing he remembered was being suffocated, the Goa'uld looming over him with an evil sneer on his face as the image he would take to the heaven.  
  
"He's dead, we've got to get out of here before Jaffa show up, come on sir." Sam told him, helping Jack to sit up and pulling him to his feet. Jack automatically leant heavily on his left leg but suddenly realised there was no pain his damage knee, looking down at his leg, his makeshift bandage was hanging off it. Sam held up the Hand Device in front of Jack's face indicating how his knee had been repaired so quickly.  
  
"Well at least the snakeheads are good for something." He commented rolling his eyes, he tentatively put weight on both legs, and was extremely pleased to be able to do so without extreme pain.  
  
"Alright Major, I'm ready to go, lead the way." He declared. Sam handed Jack the staff weapon she was stole from Kelra and gestured to the door she had used previously.  
  
They made their way silently down the hallways of the mothership, surprisingly meeting little resistance considering Sam had just killed the people's god and another Jaffa, entering the Ring Transporter Room five minutes later.  
  
"The rings should take us directly to the Stargate." Sam reported to the Colonel who was scouting around to make sure the area was clear of hostiles.  
  
"Correct me if I'm wrong Major, but one thing I do remember quite clearly is something about toxic soil and DECS?" he enquired.  
  
"The people who first inhabited this planet used the toxic soil to stop the Goa'uld and other unwanted visitors from coming to the planet. When they needed to use the Stargate they would raise platforms made of Naquadah and use them to access the Stargate safely." Sam clarified. Jack turned back and walked towards Sam.  
  
"And I'm assuming that you have the controls to these platforms?" He guessed hopefully. Sam pointed at the device in her hand.  
  
"The platforms were already raised but I don't know how long or even if the platform would remained raised. In any case I stole the control from the guard that escorted me to the Stargate."  
  
"Nicely done Major." Jack commented. Sam smiled and looked back down at the device. Examining it carefully, the button on the left of the device had an obscure U shape carved into it while the other was a U shape also but upside down.  
  
"Alright, I think I've figured out how to raise the platforms." Sam thought out loud to herself.  
  
"You think?" Jack repeated.  
  
"Well I've never seen anything like this before sir." Sam defended.  
  
"And if you're wrong?" Jack enquired out of curiosity. Sam shrugged her shoulders,  
  
"If I'm wrong, we step onto the toxic soil, it will eat through our clothes and dissolve all the living tissues in our body." She stated as fact. Jack nodded his head,  
  
"Is that it?" He asked sarcastically. Sam smiled and took a deep breath before pressing the button that had the U up the right way.  
  
"Alright, that should do it, let's go." Sam stepped over to the wall where the control panel sat. Hitting the activation button she quickly jogged back to her position and stood with her Zat at the ready, Jack stood beside her with staff weapon in hand, the rings dropped from the ceiling and a bright light soon engulfed them both.  
  
When the rings had ascended back up and the light had cleared, Sam and Jack dropped onto the safe Naquadah platforms. Seeing no guards or Jaffa patrols in their line of sight Sam and Jack stepped from the Ring Platform and over to where the DHD stood. Jack turned around briefly to survey the scenery behind them but his ears pricked suddenly at the familiar sound of Gliders coming from just over the horizon.  
  
"Anytime your ready Carter." He mumbled over his shoulder.  
  
"What sir?" Sam called back not hearing him. Jack spun her around to face his direction and pointed over a large sand dune to the northeast as a Glider appeared in the sky. Sam turned back to the DHD and quickly dialled the coordinates to Earth for the second time that day. Jack could hear the whoosh of the event horizon escaping from the Stargate.  
  
"Time to go!" He ordered, as the Gliders swiftly flew towards them, their weapons ready to fire. Inputting the correct signal into her transmitter, Sam sprinted towards the Stargate; a soft pop could be heard as she disappeared through it. Jack turned and jumped into the active Stargate after her just as the Gliders began to fire on them.  
  
SGC  
  
The familiar voice came once again over the base speakers. General Hammond groaned as he quickly scribbled his signature on a meaningless piece of paperwork and left his office once again to see who was coming through the Stargate. Without even having to ask the officer at the controls answered his question.  
  
"Receiving GTO transmission...it's SG1." He reported.  
  
"Open the iris!" he barked, the shield retracting away as the blue from the Stargate illuminated the Gate Room. Moments later Sam came through and landed heavily on the platform, rolling down the bottom. Getting to her feet she turned and looked back at the Stargate in waiting and soon Jack jumped from the Stargate and into the familiar surroundings of the SGC.  
  
"Close the iris!" Sam yelled to the technicians in the Control Room, the scraping of the pure titanium shield could be heard as the wormhole behind it disappeared.  
  
"Wormhole disengaged!" General Hammond looked down at his two senior officers with a frown. Of course he was greatly relieved that they were home safely, thanking God that it wasn't one of them that had been crushed before hand but his orders were what stopped a smile forming on his face. Reaching down to the microphone, the General hit the call button.  
  
"Air men, arrest Colonel O'Neill and escort him to my office immediately." He ordered solemnly. Sam watched in confusion and disbelief as men rushed over to Jack, pulled his arms behind his back and placed cuffs on his wrists, Jack didn't resist, letting himself be arrested as his previous actions spontaneously returned to haunt him  
  
"What's going on?" she pulled at one of the airmen's arm frantically, the officer turning around and faced her.  
  
"I don't know mam, just following orders." He replied before following his fellow officers out of the Gate Room. Janet pushed her way through the procession and ran over to where Sam stood in shock.  
  
"Hey Sam, I'm so glad you're back. I've got to get you to the infirmary and run some tests." Janet said quickly, taking Sam's arm.  
  
"What's going on? Why are they putting the Colonel under arrest?" She demanded answers. Janet sighed to herself; she was part of the reason Jack was being discharged and the guilt cut through her like a scalpel in the midst of surgery. Deciding she would break the news to Sam after the examination, Janet tried to reassure her friend.  
  
"Come on let's get you checked out." She encouraged, practically having to pull Sam towards the infirmary.  
  
INFIRMARY  
  
"Well all your test results are normal which means the Docter gives you a clean bill of health and orders to go home and relax for the night." Janet reported with a smile, standing beside the bed that Sam was sitting on, she was staring at Janet with a stale expression.  
  
"You never answered my question, why did the General order the Colonel arrested?" Sam repeated her earlier question firmly. Janet dropped her clipboard defeatedly onto the table beside her, making a large clanging sound as it hit the steel tray underneath it.  
  
"Colonel O'Neill broke regulations by going through the Stargate without authorisation." Janet answered simply, hoping that it would be explanation enough for Sam, she was wrong. Sam could see her best friend wasn't telling her the whole truth.  
  
"Janet..." she warned, her tone becoming harsh and serious. Janet sighed audibly, running her hands through her dishevelled hair.  
  
"The Colonel and Teal'c were trapped in another time loop Sam. You and Daniel were on the planet and it was outside the subspace bubble." Janet began slowly, not wanting to miss anything important.  
  
"That's why Daniel and I couldn't use the Gate." Sam remembered, Janet nodded and continued.  
  
"The Colonel asked for permission to take the rest of the team through the Stargate to one of the Goa'uld planets in the loop, borrow a ship and fly to the planet to rescue you and Daniel." At the mention of Daniel's name Sam looked around the room as if to see him when she hadn't before hand.  
  
"Where is Daniel?" Sam asked.  
  
"General Hammond just told me that Colonel O'Neill said he flew back with Teal'c in the cargo ship they stole." Janet responded. Sam nodded at let her friend continue.  
  
"General Hammond refused so Jack and Teal'c came to me and asked for my help in creating a false medical emergency, evacuate the whole of the SGC so they could go through the Gate. Colonel Simmons visited the General after the Colonel went through and told him that the Pentagon had ordered Colonel O'Neill to be dishonourably discharged for disobeying orders and conduct unbecoming of an Air Force officer." Janet finished, studying Sam's face for a reaction.  
  
GENERAL HAMMOND'S OFFICE  
  
Jack stood in the middle of the room; his hands still behind his back but the handcuffs had been removed by the airmen before he entered the office. Jack watched the General paced the floor behind his desk in frustration. Finally he stopped and turned to face Jack.  
  
"What were you thinking Colonel?" he asked in anger. Jack stood tall, not embarrassed or regretful of his actions.  
  
"Two of my team members were trapped on an alien planet with no food or water, that's what I was thinking sir." He answered frankly.  
  
"I received a visit from Colonel Simmons earlier, the Pentagon had ordered me to dishonourably discharge you for disobeying a direct order, violating regulations and conduct unbecoming of an Air Force officer. Do you understand what this means Colonel?" he continued the plaque of questions.  
  
"Yes sir, it's a consequence I'm willing to take for my actions." Jack replied, he had no excuses, no eleventh hour plea; he broke the regulations that he had sworn he would uphold and now he was being reprimanded for it. General Hammond stared at Jack, shook his head and sat down heavily in his chair, a small stack of paperwork sitting in front of him. Pushing them towards Jack he laid a pen across them.  
  
"These are your discharge papers. You'll need to sign them, collect your belongings from your quarters and office and then be escorted from the base where all your identification will be surrendered as well as any other items that could present a security risk to the base." General Hammond informed Jack in a deflated and defeated voice. Jack knew the General didn't want him to go any more than Jack wanted to go himself but orders were orders, you break them that's when you get disciplined. Jack stood at attention and raised his arm in a salute to his superior officer, a sign of respect for the man that had given him so much.  
  
"It's been an honour serve under you sir." General Hammond returned the salute,  
  
"Good luck Jack." He replied softly. Jack took the papers from the desk and turned and left the room, an airman leading him towards the infirmary for his last ever check in the SGC.  
  
Sam ran to the General office, she received smiles and "welcome back" from many officers but she just ignored them and anyone else walking by her. Opening the door without knocking she barged into the room breathless, General Hammond sat in his chair with a sad expression on his face.  
  
"Major, have you forgotten how to knock?" he asked tonelessly.  
  
"Why is the Colonel being discharged? He saved my life and Daniel's." Sam declared preparing for the inevitable argument. '  
  
"Colonel O'Neill directly disobeyed a direct order and used the Stargate without authorisation. I have no choice to abide by the Pentagon's decision to discharge him." The General replied flatly.  
  
"But sir..." Sam began before she was cut off.  
  
"Major, I don't want him discharged as much as you do but I have to follow orders just as every other military officer has to. Now I want to go home for the evening, I don't want to see you here until the morning, and that's an order." General Hammond affirmed. Sam opened her mouth to argue but was again stopped.  
  
"Dismissed!"  
  
TBC  
  
Hey whatcha think?  
  
I'm a hippo hungry for reviews so... feed me!  
  
O'NeillRoxMyWorld 


	8. The CD, The Note, The Search

A/N I don't know if they have to quote their serial number when calling the SGC but I thought it could be a security measure that they may take to insure the security of the Stargate.  
  
There is actually a restaurant/fish and chip shop on the water in Cooktown. For privacy and copyright reasons I have not used the restaurants official name but I can tell you their Barramundi is to die for.  
  
The smell of chicken cacciatore wafted through Sam's house as the orange of the sunset filtered through the window. Transferring the pot of rice over the sink she drained it thoroughly and tipped into onto the waiting plate. Stepping over to the stove, Sam turned off the element, slipping on oven mitts she carried the steaming pan over to the plate and poured the chicken dish over the top of the bed of rice. Dumping the pan into the sink Sam took her glass of Asti Riccadonna, her favourite white wine, and her home cooked meal to the dining room table. It felt great to be back in her own house again, to take a shower in her own bathroom, to wear whatever clothes she wanted. Sam felt safe there, the safety she had so desperately craved back on the planet. Pushing those thoughts aside Sam took a sip of wine before gingerly tasting the steaming hot culinary delight before her. She winced as it burnt her tongue slightly, dropping her fork to the plate Sam sighed to herself. A few minutes later a knock came at her front door, interrupting her thoughts about a certain Commanding Officer that had just been fired and the events of the day. Emptying her glass she left the dining room table and jogged over to the door. As she opened it she spotted a young man dressed in blue overalls with the logo FED EX stitched into the fabric standing on her doorstep holding a small box in one hand and a clipboard in the other.  
  
"Major Samantha Carter?" he enquired. Sam nodded and the young man handed her the clipboard and a pen.  
  
"I have a package for you could you please sign at the bottom." He requested in a bored monotone voice, Sam could tell it had been a long day for him, and he wasn't the only one. Sam quickly and illegibly scribbled her name at the bottom of the sheet of paper and gratefully the box from the deliveryman.  
  
"Thank you." She smiled at him hoping it would make some sort of difference to the man's mood, but it didn't, instead she received a simple grunt in reply and the young man walked away from her door, got into his van and sped away from her house.  
  
"Talk about customer service." Sam muttered to herself as she closed the door, her eyes transfixed on the package in her hand. She wasn't expecting anything, it was too small to be something from the SGC and they wouldn't take the security risk of someone other than SGC personnel handling the delivery. The only person she thought it could be from was Mark, she hadn't spoken to him in a while and the thought left her feeling guilty about not keeping in touch more with the only member of her family that still lived on Earth. Flopping down into her comfy couch, completely disregarding the early dinner she had prepared herself, Sam carefully pulled the lid of the book. She peered tentatively inside and found a CD; the cover had "FOR SAM" in large, looping, calligraphy writing. An expression of bewildered she pulled it cautiously out of the box and found a lone piece of small paper underneath. Setting down the CD somewhere next to her on the couch, Sam reached in and grasped the paper between her two fingers. Sam didn't know why but for some reason her hands began to shake, she opened the folded note slowly and instantly recognised the handwriting.  
  
Dear Samantha,  
  
I've never been very good with words so I have found a song that says how much I love you, I have had this for a while but have never found the right time to give it to you.  
  
I will always miss you and cherish the time we have spent together.  
  
Please remember that I will always love you.  
  
Jack.  
  
Sam choked back a sob as tears of joy began to spring from her eyes. She read the note over again in case she was dreaming the words on the page but they were there, for her, in black and white and in his handwriting. Dropping to her lap Sam got up from the couch with CD in had and walked over to her CD player, opening the CD changer Sam shakily pulled the blank, gold CD from it's case and placed it carefully on the tray, not wanting to damage it in any way. It only took a few seconds for it to load and soon the music filled Sam's house, the lyrics cutting through straight to Sam's heart.  
  
Look into my eyes - you will see  
  
What you mean to me  
  
Search your heart - search your soul  
  
And when you find me there you'll search no more  
  
Don't tell me it's not worth tryin' for  
  
You can't tell me it's not worth dyin' for  
  
You know it's true  
  
Everything I do - I do it for you Look into my heart - you will find  
  
There's nothin' there to hide  
  
Take me as I am - take my life  
  
I would give it all I would sacrifice  
  
Don't tell me it's not worth fightin' for  
  
I can't help it there's nothin' I want more  
  
Ya know it's true  
  
Everything I do - I do it for you  
  
Sam covered her face with her hands as her initial trickle of tears turned into a flood to rival the Amazon River. It was finally happening. After over half a decade of keeping their feelings hidden from one another Jack had finally said the words Sam had been longing to hear, I love you. Through being nearly frozen in Antarctica, captured by the Goa'uld countless number of times, fighting the Replicators and other life- threatening missions they were finally admitting their love for each other. She felt like running through the streets and yelling it at the top of her lungs, he loved her and she loved him, thoughts of the regulations entered her mind briefly but the excitement of the moment made them dissolve into oblivion.  
  
There's no love - like your love  
  
And no other - could give more love  
  
There's nowhere - unless you're there  
  
All the time - all the way Don't tell me it's not worth tryin' for  
  
I can't help it there's nothin' I want more  
  
I would fight for you - I'd lie for you  
  
Walk the wire for you - Ya I'd die for you Ya know it's true  
  
Everything I do - I do it for you  
  
As the song began to fade out Sam rushed to the phone and frantically punched in the SGC's number hoping to catch him before he left.  
  
"Hello may I help you?" a young, female voice asked.  
  
"This is Major Carter, Serial Number 5448 8214, I need to speak with Colonel O'Neill immediately." Sam demanded, she could feel her heart beating faster than it ever had before.  
  
"One moment please." The operator put her on hold for a brief moment before Sam heard someone pick up on the other end of the line. Her heart skipped a beat as she waited to hear his sweet voice but it wasn't the voice she was expecting.  
  
"This is Hammond." The General answered. Sam opened her mouth to blurt out that she loved him too but stopped dead when she heard the General's voice. She swallowed hard, clearing her throat.  
  
"Ah, General sir, I was wanting to speak with the Colonel is he there?" Sam asked, her voice wavering slightly.  
  
"I'm sorry Major but Colonel O'Neill left the base half an hour ago." Sam almost felt like strangling her superior officer.  
  
"Goodbye sir." Sam ended the call abruptly, picking up the receiver again and dialling her office number. It rang for only a few times before Major Adermann answered sleepily.  
  
"Major, have you seen Colonel O'Neill recently?" she asked fiercely, not wanting to waste any time with small talk.  
  
"Ah well he came by here a half hour, 45 minutes ago." The Major recalled briefly.  
  
"Did he say anything else, where he was going?" Sam enquired.  
  
"Well he did ask me to sell his car for him, I don't know what that means exactly." he replied, sounding as confused as she was at that moment.  
  
"Thank you, goodbye Major." Again hanging the phone and ending the conversation first. Grabbing her car keys from table beside the phone, Sam raced to the door; snatching her leather jacket from the stand beside it. Jumping into her car, the tyres squealed as she pulled out from her driveway and sped towards Jack's house.  
  
For a trip that usually took twenty minutes, Sam screeched to halt in front of his house only ten minutes after she had left her own house. Not bothering to take her keys from the ignition, Sam jumped from her car and raced to the front door, pulling out her spare house key that had been given to her for use in emergencies. She shoved it into the door lock and pushed it open. The house was pitch back; the only light in house was the glow of his fish tank where his angelfish swam around, like Sam was, desperate to find something that wasn't there. Flipping on the light switch beside the door, Sam glanced around the room but there was no sign of Jack there.  
  
"Colonel? Jack are you here?" she yelled, suddenly something caught her eye; a lone piece of paper was sitting on his usually messy coffee table. Walking cautiously over to it, she picked it up and skimmed the contents.  
  
Danny, Teal'c, Carter or whoever you are.  
  
I've gone on a very extended holiday; don't try my mobile or pager you'll find them at the bottom of my fish tank as my fishes' new exhibit.  
  
The Man Formerly Known As Colonel O'Neill  
  
P.S. Speaking of fish, will someone feed Skaara while I'm gone?  
  
Looking over her shoulder at the tank she spotted two black objects behind the large, brown rock that had been placed in the tank originally.  
  
"Oh for cryin' out loud," Sam muttered to herself, she scrunched the paper up angrily in her hand. Sam's mind raced, trying to think of how she could track him down.  
  
"Holiday, Holiday, Holiday. Okay he wouldn't go to his usual places because we would just follow him there. Think, think Sam!" she cursed at herself when suddenly it hit her.  
  
"Airport..." she whispered to herself. Whipping out her cell phone Sam pushed the number in for Directory Assistance.  
  
"Colorado Springs Airport." She demanded of the operator. She tapped her foot impatient as her call was diverted; it felt like an eternity before the operator at the airport answered her call.  
  
"Colorado Spring Airport how may I help you?" she asked courteously. Sam jumped at the voice.  
  
"This is Major Carter, Unites States Air Force, I need to know if a Jack O'Neill is registered on any of your flight manifests." Sam enquired.  
  
"I'm sorry mam I'm not a liberty to release that information." The operator replied as she had been trained to do. Sam felt like she was about exploded in frustration.  
  
"What's your name?" Sam asked curiously.  
  
"Annabel Stevens." The operator replied slowly and in clear annoyance.  
  
"Okay, if you could just wait a moment I'll call the President and tell him that a Miss Annabel Stevens is obstructing official business of the United State Air Force. Now is that with a "v" or a "ph" in "Stevens"?" Sam enquired threateningly with clear sarcasm in her voice. The line went silent for a few seconds as Annabel thought over Sam's threat.  
  
"Is that O'Neill with one L or two mam?" she asked, giving into Sam's full- blown lie.  
  
"Two, Jonathan O'Neill." Sam repeated. Annabel enter the name into the database, it took nearly a minute for the computer to respond.  
  
"A Jonathan O'Neill boarded a flight to Singapore, with a connecting flight to Cairns, Australia with another connecting flight to Cooktown only a few minutes ago." She informed her customer with the information from the computer screen in front of her. Sam's eyebrows shot up in momentary surprise, Australia, not exactly the place she thought Jack would be. Making a split second, erratic decision Sam dug into her jeans pocket and pulled out her wallet.  
  
"Would you please book me on the next flight, the same as his, to Australia, I'll give you my credit card number, the ticket in the name of Samantha Carter." She requested, quoting the number on her American Express card, something she rarely ever used, but always seemed to come in handy.  
  
"That flight will be leaving at 7.45am tomorrow morning."  
  
"Thank you."  
  
A small duffel bag sat on the seat beside her, a couple of essentials for the trip half way across the world. She was almost at the airport when her cell phone rang. Picking up her hands free she placed the microphone on her light blue blouse and the earpiece into her right ear, pressing the accept button on her phone.  
  
"Hello?" she asked distractedly, not really in the mood to talk.  
  
"Hey Sam it's Janet, just wanted to know if you wanted to go out tonight, I'll pick up from your house now and I'll drive. Get you use to good things Earth has to offer." Janet joked, remembering Sam had just come back from off world.  
  
"I can't Janet, I'm on my way to catch a plane to Australia." She said frankly, under the circumstances she couldn't come up with a feasible excuse of the top of her head.  
  
"Australia? Why? Shouldn't you be on your way to work?" Janet asked in confusion.  
  
"Because that's where the Colonel is." She replied cryptically, turning into Airport Drive, the clock in her car read 7:20.  
  
"I still don't understand why are you going?" Janet demanded a straight answer out of her best friend; it was slight erratic behaviour on Sam's part.  
  
"Because he finally said it." Sam declared happily, it was the first person she had told.  
  
"Said what!" Janet raised her voice in frustration.  
  
"Said that he loves me!" Janet's jaw dropped in disbelief, a smile of happiness covering the rest of her face.  
  
"Your kidding, oh my gosh that's great Sam!" she exclaimed. Sam couldn't help but smile in pure ecstasy; she hadn't slept the night before because she was so nervous and excited about seeing him. Janet knew how long Sam had waited for this.  
  
"When Teal'c and Daniel get home tell them I've gone on holidays for a few days but tell them why ok?" Sam requested.  
  
"Sure, oh my gosh Sam! Have fun, bring me back a souvenir." Janet responded as Sam pulled into a parking spot in front of the airport.  
  
"Sure Janet, see you when I get back."  
  
Sam never thought a flight could be so long, she could have sworn she was travelling by paddleboard across the great oceans of Earth. She managed to stay awake with sheer adrenalin from the excitement on the first leg to Singapore but only after half an hour of boarding the second plane to Australia the lack of sleep caught up with her, she dozed off with Jack's note clutched in her hand. After over 24 hours of flying, the plane touchdown in the right country, the largest island on Earth, the Land Down Under, Australia. The voice of the pilot filtered thought Sam's sleep.  
  
"Welcome to Cairns, Australia. I hope you enjoyed your flight and thank you for flying Qantas Airlines this morning." Sam wiped the sleep from her eyes and peered out her window into the blinding sunlight of the early North Queensland morning. Glancing at her watch, she jumped when she saw the time; it was only twenty minutes until her plane would leave for Cooktown. Squeezing through the queue of people getting off the plane, Sam clutched her bags as she ran down the tunnel into the main area of the airport. In comparison to most airports she had seen it was miniature, it could only have been as big as two of the briefing rooms back at the SGC. Noticing the customer service desk in centre of room Sam shoved her way through the people waiting at the carousel.  
  
After finding out the airport to Cooktown was outside the main airport terminal, Sam raced outside and waved down a taxi and soon she was speeding away from the main airport, along the main road until she saw a building no bigger than a toilet block on the right, a small plane sitting on the runaway behind it. Looking frantically at her watch, she only had five minutes until the plane would leave without her. The taxi driver performed a wild U turn and pulled to a screeching halt in front of the building. Sam threw a $20 note at him and jumped out of the cab, running at full sprint towards the doors. Practically knocking an elderly gentleman with a cane to the floor, Sam hit the service desk at full pace.  
  
"Samantha Carter for the flight to Cooktown." She said breathlessly. The young gentleman behind the desk smiled warmly.  
  
"Don't worry Miss Carter, you didn't miss the flight, we are boarding right now."  
  
The plane to Cooktown only had 40 seats for passengers: the light air craft flew over vast forest areas and showed fantastic views of the ocean.  
  
"Ah so that's why he came here, fishing." Sam finally realised, one of Jack O'Neill's passions. The plane touched down on a dirt runway surrounded by dry, brown bush only 45 minutes later. As she stepped off the plane she was hit by the extreme heat. Spotting a tourist bus parked just outside the tiny room that constituted the Cooktown Airport, Sam saw a group of elderly people, tourists she could see by the cameras hanging around their necks, gravitated towards it.  
  
"Okay blend in Sam." She mumbled to herself as she jogged over to the group and mingled in amongst them. The crowd of people practically pushed her onto the bus, no arguments from Sam, she needed a way to get to the main area of town. The bus jumped over the bumpy dirt roads that led into town, the tyres throwing up the red dirt behind them. A lady who introduced herself to Sam as Agnes was chatting away about her children back in England.  
  
"So what is such a lovely woman like yourself doing here? Don't you have a husband back home in the States?" she asked Sam curiously. Sam smiled at her tolerantly.  
  
"No, I'm actually here on holiday with my husband." She lied; it was only a little lie in Sam's opinion. Agnes beamed at Sam when she heard her reply.  
  
"Oh that must be so romantic! How did you meet him?" she discretely poked her nose in Sam's personal life.  
  
"We worked together, he was my boss." Sam replied simply.  
  
"Oh, a forbidden love." Agnes winked at her as if being let in on the most top-secret relationship on the face of the Earth.  
  
*You have no idea* Sam thought to herself. The dirt roads soon made way for pavement as the bus drove through a little, sleepy town, on the left they passed a Bakery, various little arts and crafts shops and even a Post Office that was set up in an old historic house. Soon the ocean came into view, the sparkling blue water reflecting the sunlight off the surface. Small boats bobbed on the water's surface as children fished from the safety of the edge of the land. The bus pulled up in front of a restaurant called the "FISH AND CHIP EMPORIUM" that was written on the sign in large blue letters. The group piled off the bus and walked towards the entrance of the restaurant but something made Sam stop dead in her tracks, the other passengers pushed past her to enter the eating place. A small sign was placed in window.  
  
BAIT SOLD AROUND THE CORNER.  
  
Sam looked back to make sure no one would notice her disappearing act before she slipped around the corner and entered a small fish and chip store. A tall, young woman with glasses and a friendly smile greeted her.  
  
"Hi can I get you anything?" she asked, a prominent Australian drawl in her voice.  
  
"Yes, did a man come in here, tall, silver hair probably would have brought bait?" Sam asked, hoping to god she was going to get a break in her search.  
  
"Yeah, had the same American accent as you? He came in only a few minutes ago and bought some worms, said he was going out today." The shop assistant remembered the gentleman. Sam's eyes lit up in anticipation,  
  
"Do you know where his boat was?" she asked as she felt the adrenalin began to flow through her body once again.  
  
"Yeah, just go outside, turn left and the dock's just there, you might catch him before he goes out for the day." Sam smiled, adjusting the bag over her shoulder.  
  
"Thank you so much." She replied hurriedly before running out the door, across the face of the building and ran out onto the dock, her shoes tapping gently on the wood. A small, green boat sat moored next to the dock, bobbing gently with the current. Time seemed to stand still as she walked cautiously towards it. Just as she reached the boat Sam's heart stopped in her chest as Jack appeared from inside the cabin wearing a black t-shirt and faded jeans, only a few metres away from her. She smiled to herself, she attempted to slow her heart rate and relax, leaning one leg on the side of the boat  
  
"Janet says she'll look after your fish for you." Sam called to him. Jack stopped in the middle of dumping a bag of ice in his esky as he recognised the all too familiar voice. Dropping the remainder of the bag to the floor of the boat carelessly, he turned around slowly and couldn't believe his eyes when he saw her smiling face looking back at him. His heart skipped a beat as his mind began to race with thoughts of what she would say to him, did she know about him being discharged and if she did what did she think about it? Was she here because of the package her sent her? Sam jumped down onto the boat and dropped her bag down beside herself, looking around her at the boat as if taking in every detail.  
  
"I didn't know you owned a boat." She said casually, striking up conversation.  
  
"What's up Carter?" he asked just as casually, skipping past the small talk.  
  
"Janet and General Hammond told me what you did in the time loop, why you were discharged. I just wanted to say thank you, if you hadn't broke the regulations I'd still be back on that planet, being implanted with a Goa'uld." Sam said, her cheerful tone turning slightly quieter. Jack nodded,  
  
"You both would've done the same for me." Jack replied dismissively.  
  
"But that isn't the whole reason you came here is it?" he questioned her, knowing her all too well. Sam looked down in embarrassment, the ever- familiar pink tinge to her cheeks and the "not so innocent" look on her face. Sam pulled Jack's note that accompanied the CD from her back pocket, holding it between her two fingers for him to see.  
  
"I also wanted to let you know I got your package and I just thought it would be nice if I delivered my present in person." She replied coyly, taking a step closer to him. Jack raised his eyebrows in curiosity.  
  
"Present? You came all the way to Australia to give me a present? Ever heard of Fed Ex?" he joked nervously, she was now standing only inches away from him, his heart rate had just jumped to sprinting level.  
  
"I don't think Fed Ex can deliver this kind of present." Sam responded seductively, resting her hand on his chest she took hold of the front of his shirt and pulled him gently towards her. As their lips touched, their minds were suddenly wiped clean, no thoughts about Jack being discharged or anything else but enjoying their moment together, a moment both had been waiting for since they had first met each other. As the kiss deepened, Jack's arms slipped around Sam's hips, pulling her closer towards him as his body screamed for more. Sam felt like she was about to suffocate, reluctantly breaking away from their kiss she gasped for air before saying what she had always wanted to say without fear.  
  
"I love you too."She whispered through a smile. Jack was so amazed that for one of the few times in his life, he was lost for words, his mouth opened and closed but no sound came out. Sam couldn't help but giggle to herself; she had never seen him so flabbergasted in the very long time they had known each other.  
  
"So, speaking of time loops, you never really answered the question Daniel asked you after the first time loop." Sam reminded him, thinking about her conversation with Daniel back on P6Z 435. Jack snapped from his momentary state of shock to reply.  
  
"Do you really want to know?" he asked toying with her, still holding her close to him  
  
"Of course, I wouldn't have asked if I didn't." she pointed out. Jack thought for a moment,  
  
"Okay, I'll tell you what happened... if you come fishing with me today." He bargained, thinking back to the fond memory of fishing with Sam in the time loop. Sam rolled her eyes at him,  
  
"Trust you to say something like that, you've been trying to get me fishing with you for how many years?" She teased. Jack shrugged his shoulders,  
  
"Too many to count." He replied. Sam sighed in resignation.  
  
"Alright you have a deal." Sam agreed in a tone that seemed to be reluctant but she really was excited at the prospect of spending time alone with Jack away from home.  
  
"Excellent. If you wouldn't mind getting the rope we can head out and catch something for dinner." He responded eagerly, planting a quick kiss on her lips before letting her free from his grasp. Soon they were gliding effortlessly over the water, the spray hitting Sam's face as she stood at the keel with Jack gazing out into the morning sun, it was such a beautiful sight Sam almost had to pinch herself to make sure it was real and not just a perfect dream. After a couple of hours of travelling Jack finally stopped the boat in secluded river passage. Sam could see the excitement in his eyes at the prospect of catching dinner but she had other plans. When Jack handed her a rod Sam simply discarded it to the floor of the boat, doing the same with the rod in his hand.  
  
"Hey, wh-"Jack began to protest before he was caught mid sentence by Sam's lips pressing firmly and passionately against his. Sam parted her lips just far enough to ask the one million dollar question.  
  
"Where's the bedroom on this thing?" She whispered seductively.  
  
THE END!!!!  
  
Yes, it's finally the end, after how many months I have finally finished and have had a blast writing this.  
  
I hope you have enjoyed reading this, as I have loved writing it.  
  
If you liked this fan fiction check out my other stories at  
  
  
  
All my best to you  
  
O'NeillRoxMyWorld 


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